From: ethanb@ptolemy.astro.washington.edu (Ethan Bradford)
Subject: Re: General gnus help - Distribution problems
To: dougger@ERC.MsState.Edu (Douglas Meyer)
Organization: U. of Washington
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 07:14:33 GMT

In article <DOUGGER.92Sep25100855@corazon.ERC.MsState.Edu> dougger@ERC.MsState.Edu (Douglas Meyer) writes:

   Howdy folks:

   Perhaps the FAQ that was just discussed would help me, but I'm a
   little lost when running gnus 3.13 in terms of the questions that it
   asks, and what really works.  

No, it doesn't seem to address this, though it is a frequently asked
question.

   We (at the Mississippi State Engineering Research Center) don't seem
   to have any success getting mail past our nntp server (or even to it
   at times) unless the distribution reads one of the following:

   msu
   msu.cc
   usa
   na
   us
   world

   There may be other valid entries.  Well, when gnus asks for the
   distribution, it always gives a "clue" of what it seems to be looking
   for.  For example, when getting ready to post this message, it said:

   Distribution:  gnu.

   (I think the period was there.)  Anyway... in fact I have to erase
   that and put "usa" in its place for it to distribute around the
   country.  So why does it prompt me as if it's looking for a specific
   newsgroup?  

There seems to be some confusion and debate about what the
distribution field means, though the most common and reasonable
interpretation is the geographic limitation that your site uses.

   Also, since the distribution seems to be looking for something general
   like "usa" vs "world", why does it ask the first question, namely:

   "Are you sure that you want to post to all of UseNet?"

   Is this just a general panic button?  Or does it run deeper than that?

Just a general panic button.  Setting gnus-novice-user to nil will
turn off that question.

   I'm just wondering how this all works (both gnus and UseNet) so that I
   can use it properly, so I can modify the gnus code to offer better
   cues to the user, and so I can put together a quick reference for the
   other folks around here that are experiencing the same confusion.

Here are diffs which will change gnuspost.el to handle this correctly
(apply the diffs with the patch program).

ptolemy% diff -c gnuspost.el.orig gnuspost.el
*** gnuspost.el.orig	Fri Mar 27 09:26:41 1992
--- gnuspost.el	Sat May  2 10:35:40 1992
***************
*** 32,37 ****
--- 32,44 ----
  (autoload 'news-reply-mode "rnewspost")
  (autoload 'timezone-make-date-arpa-standard "timezone")
  
+ ;; Adjust this list for your local distributions. These are ok for the
+ ;; usa, local areas might want to add their own (like nj, ny, ne, ca, etc).
+ 
+ (defvar gnus-distributions-assoc
+   '(("world" 1) ("pnw" 2) ("usa" 3) ("local" 4))
+   "*Valid distributions for your location")
+ 	
  ;;; Post news commands of GNUS Group Mode and Subject Mode
  
  (defun gnus-Group-post-news ()
***************
*** 171,187 ****
  					   newsgroups ;Default newsgroup.
  					   )))
  		(setq subject (read-string "Subject: "))
  		(setq distribution
! 		      (substring newsgroups 0 (string-match "\\." newsgroups)))
! 		(if (string-equal distribution newsgroups)
! 		    ;; Newsgroup may be general or control. In this
! 		    ;; case, use default distribution.
! 		    (setq distribution gnus-default-distribution))
! 		(setq distribution
! 		      (read-string "Distribution: " distribution))
! 		;; An empty string is ok to ignore gnus-default-distribution.
! 		;;(if (string-equal distribution "")
! 		;;    (setq distribution nil))
  		))
  	  (news-setup () subject () newsgroups artbuf)
  	  ;; Make sure the article is posted by GNUS.
--- 178,189 ----
  					   newsgroups ;Default newsgroup.
  					   )))
  		(setq subject (read-string "Subject: "))
+ 		;; Bug fix by sdb%hotmomma@uunet.uu.net
+ 		;; Don't set distribution field to heirarchy name.
+ 		;; prevents much flames and mail.
  		(setq distribution
! 		      (completing-read "Distribution: " gnus-distributions-assoc
! 				       nil nil))
  		))
  	  (news-setup () subject () newsgroups artbuf)
  	  ;; Make sure the article is posted by GNUS.



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