From: tooraj@daneel.rdt.monash.edu.au (Tooraj Enayati)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.bahai
Subject: Re: Which questionniare? (Was I alone? NO)
Summary: 9 others did not receive it.
Date: 3 Oct 92 11:11:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: ogicse.43799
Organization: Monash University

Hi everyone,

Following my question about the questionniare and whether I was the
only one who did not recieve it. I have recieved 9 (nice figure)
replies. Most of them were sure that they did not recieve the
questionnaire. And some were not sure if that was because they were
new to the group or they just didn't recieve it.

I'd like to thank each one of the respondents.  [I second this!  And
thanks to you for your research, Tooraj. --rdt] They are from all over
the world: Australia, Germany, Canada, UK, and USA.  Eight read us in
the form of news, one as mailings to the bahai-faith mailing list.

I think there was a total of 26 replies to the questionniare. With
nine people missing out on that article, one wonders what percentage
of the aricles end up not getting to every one.

Since this is a moderated news group, as I understand it, all of the
articles get sent to the network, after approval of the moderator,
form the same machine. I might be wrong of course, but if I am right
then this makes me wonder whether the moderators link to the network
is reliable. Could the dear moderators insert their []s here and
explain how the moderation :-) prossess works.

  [It's one level more complicated than suggested above: The
  moderators' postings originate as news, fired off from one of
  several well connected machines and subsequently propagated in a
  decentralized manner.  When these reach the news system at the
  mailing list host, they are converted to email and sent to all
  bahai-faith subscribers.  Thus, the mailing list has a single point
  of origin, but not the newsgroup.  Also, the mailing list gets a
  somewhat later start than the news format. --rdt]

Synopsis of the 9 responses:

5 don't remember seeing it / didn't see it -- no additional data furnished

3 just recently came aboard, may have missed article

1 was away for several weeks, article may have expired

  [It appears that only one of the nine individuals responding to you
  is a mailing list subscriber; and this individual may not have been
  subscribed when the questionnaire was mailed.  Thus, the mailing
  list "host" does not appear to be a culprit.

  Lacking a means to trace individual news articles as they travel
  among USENET sites, one can only speculate on the possible causes of
  an article's not being found by a particular reader:

    Not being subscribed at the time (~ 23 August)

    Being away from newsreader long enough for article to expire (this
    is site specific but can be as little as 1 day; 1 or 2 weeks is more
    typical)

    Glancing over article and forgetting it

    A disconnection from USENET at either the receiving site or
    somewhere "upstream" (very site specific)

    An upstream site not "subscribing" to a particular newsgroup (this
    would make invisible _all_ articles in the group)

  We shall continue to monitor reports of missing articles, both
  inbound and outbound.  We always welcome suggestions and may be
  reached at srb-mods@oneworld.wa.com --rdt]

I think every one should stay alert for missing articles.
-- 
==============================================================================
Tooraj Enayati     Melbourne     Australia     tooraj@daneel.rdt.monash.edu.au
Monash University       Robotic and Digital Technology       (Graduate/Alumni)
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.bahai