mailing list vs. usenet?

[John Schmitt]

You know what they say, right?  Something like

"""
The difference between theory and practice is bigger in practice than the
difference between theory and practice in theory.
"""

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Peters [mailto:tim.one at home.com]
> Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 3:05 PM
> To: John Schmitt; python-list at python.org
> Subject: RE: mailing list vs. usenet?
> 
> 
> [posted & mailed]
> 
> [John Schmitt]
> > Are all the messages that get posted to comp.lang.python copied
> > to this mailing list?  I just looked at dejanews.com and saw some
> > messages that didn't seem to appear on this list.
> 
> In theory, it's a two-way street, except that some kinds of 
> spam posted to
> the newsgroup shouldn't show up on the mailing list.
> 
> In practice, the hardware running the python.org mailing 
> lists is inadequate
> (in particular, runs out of disk space routinely), and the newsfeed is
> sometimes flaky too.  Given "the usual" vagaries of newsfeed 
> propagation,
> even if everything is working perfectly, seeing a *recent* 
> msg on DejaNews
> (or any other specific news server) says nothing about 
> whether it will show
> up on the mailing list.
> 
> The most common failure mode over the years is msgs mailed to 
> the mailing
> list that never make it to the newsgroup.  Indeed, some of 
> the best msgs
> ever posted <wink>.
> 
> it's-software-it's-unreliable-ly y'rs  - tim
> 
> 
> -- 
> http://www.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>