reply to OT diversion (was: What is the best method to match a pattern in set of lines

[Aahz]

In article <024d7a38$0$20654$c3e8da3 at news.astraweb.com>,
Steven D'Aprano  <steve at REMOVETHIS.cybersource.com.au> wrote:
>Dennis Lee Bieber wrote:
>> On Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:47:24 -0700 (PDT), Bearophile
>> <bearophileHUGS at lycos.com> declaimed the following in
>> gmane.comp.python.general:
>>> 
>>> Dennis Lee Bieber, may I ask why most or all your posts are set to "No-
>>> Archive"?
>> 
>> I'm from the days when the majority of NNTP servers were configured
>> to expire posts after some number of days (Netcom used to expire binary
>> groups after 24 hours! and most others were something like 14 days).
>> 
>> Then came the precursor to GoogleGroups -- DejaNews -- threatening
>> to archive posts through eternity. This resulted in a fair amount of
>> protesting by some, and the creation of the x-no-archive header
>> convention (Agent even has configuration options such that, if one were
>> to not normally use x-no-archive such that one's own posts could be
>> archived, one could still honor it in replies to posts that did contain
>> it -- so those replies with quoted contents would also not be archived).
>> 
>> It was at that time that I added the x-no-archive header to my posts
>> from Agent; as, while not as vocal as others, did object to DejaNews
>> plans.
>
>But your replies often contain useful information. It's a shame that they
>disappear from record, making them invisible for anyone searching the
>archives.
>
>A good rule of thumb when judging behaviour is to ask, "What if everyone did
>this?". If everyone set x-no-archive, then discussions on Usenet would be
>ephemeral, we couldn't point people to past discussions for information,
>and we would lose a lot of useful information. (Also a lot of garbage.) I
>can't tell you how often I find useful information in the archives of
>comp.lang.python thanks to those who archive the gname news-to-email
>gateway, and Google groups. If everyone did what you use, the entire
>community, including myself, would be far worse off.
>
>As far as I'm concerned, setting x-no-archive is harmful, anti-social
>behaviour on a technical newsgroup like this. You (almost) might as well
>just email the poster you're replying to directly.

Your response to Dennis seems at least a little over-the-top.  So far as
I'm concerned, anyone who joined Usenet after DejaNews is a latecomer;
trying to change the cultural beliefs of those who were here first is
asserting your superiority.  I happen to disagree with people who post
with X-no-archive, but I think it's certainly their right.

Guess what?  Prior to DejaNews, discussions on Usenet *were* ephemeral,
and it all worked.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"as long as we like the same operating system, things are cool." --piranha