How can I correct an error in an old post?

[barakad]

Hi.
I was searching for some information regarding a problem and found an
interesting post that includes an answer to the problem; thought the
post is very helpful it is based on a wrong assumption and thus the
solution it suggests is incorrect. It took me some time to understand
that the suggested solution is wrong and to find the correct solution
and I wish to add my findings to the post, to prevent others from
taking the wrong path.
When I tried to replay to the post I received a reject message stating
that it is impossible to replay to the topic since it is old and was
closed by a manager.
The question is how can I add this correction?
Thanks.

[Blair P. Houghton]

ba*****@gmail.com wrote:

Hi.
I was searching for some information regarding a problem and found an
interesting post that includes an answer to the problem; thought the
post is very helpful it is based on a wrong assumption and thus the
solution it suggests is incorrect. It took me some time to understand
that the suggested solution is wrong and to find the correct solution
and I wish to add my findings to the post, to prevent others from
taking the wrong path.
When I tried to replay to the post I received a reject message stating
that it is impossible to replay to the topic since it is old and was
closed by a manager.
The question is how can I add this correction?
Thanks.

Start a new thread and include the old post with your
corrections.

Yes, this means the erroneous post is still out there, and
does not link directly to yours, but that's the fault of people
who "close" threads, for they are among the stupidest
people on the net.

But if, as you did, someone else searches for the information,
the old post will come up in the search results, and yours will
too, because it contains the old post. So anyone who bothers
to look at both will figure out what happened.

--Blair

[Jorgen Grahn]

On 1 Oct 2006 10:18:59 -0700, ba*****@gmail.com <ba*****@gmail.comwrote:
....

and I wish to add my findings to the post, to prevent others from
taking the wrong path.

When I tried to replay to the post I received a reject message stating
that it is impossible to replay to the topic since it is old and was
closed by a manager.

That's through the Google Groups Usenet interface, right? Because on Usenet,
that's misleading at best -- we have no managers, and noone can "close a
topic". (It's alright for them to add this extra limitation, of course.)

The question is how can I add this correction?

In Usenet terms, make a posting with a References: header which mentions the
Message-ID of the bad posting (just like this posting references yours, if
you look closely at the headers). That's easier if the posting hasn't
already expired on your server, but by no means impossible if it has.

/Jorgen

--
// Jorgen Grahn <grahn@ Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu
\X/ snipabacken.dyndns.org R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

[Steve Holden]

Jorgen Grahn wrote:

On 1 Oct 2006 10:18:59 -0700, ba*****@gmail.com <ba*****@gmail.comwrote:
....

>>and I wish to add my findings to the post, to prevent others from
taking the wrong path.

>>When I tried to replay to the post I received a reject message stating
that it is impossible to replay to the topic since it is old and was
closed by a manager.

That's through the Google Groups Usenet interface, right? Because on Usenet,
that's misleading at best -- we have no managers, and noone can "close a
topic". (It's alright for them to add this extra limitation, of course.)

>>The question is how can I add this correction?

In Usenet terms, make a posting with a References: header which mentions the
Message-ID of the bad posting (just like this posting references yours, if
you look closely at the headers). That's easier if the posting hasn't
already expired on your server, but by no means impossible if it has.

/Jorgen

Since this message was never on topic, I'd appreciate it if all
concerned would close this thread now.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden [phone] [phone]
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://holdenweb.blogspot.com
Recent Ramblings http://del.icio.us/steve.holden

[Blair P. Houghton]

Steve Holden wrote:

Since this message was never on topic, I'd appreciate it if all
concerned would close this thread now.

I already did. How did you get in here?

--Blair

[Steve Holden]

Blair P. Houghton wrote:

Steve Holden wrote:

>>Since this message was never on topic, I'd appreciate it if all
concerned would close this thread now.

I already did. How did you get in here?

:)
--
Steve Holden [phone] [phone]
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://holdenweb.blogspot.com
Recent Ramblings http://del.icio.us/steve.holden

[Jorgen Grahn]

On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:36:24 +0100, Steve Holden <st***@holdenweb.comwrote:

Jorgen Grahn wrote:

>On 1 Oct 2006 10:18:59 -0700, ba*****@gmail.com <ba*****@gmail.comwrote:
....

>>>and I wish to add my findings to the post, to prevent others from
taking the wrong path.

....

>In Usenet terms, make a posting with a References: header which mentions the
Message-ID of the bad posting (just like this posting references yours, if
you look closely at the headers). That's easier if the posting hasn't
already expired on your server, but by no means impossible if it has.

/Jorgen

Since this message was never on topic,

I disagree; it was a technical question on how to handle a discussion in
this newsgroup, and IMHO that is always on topic -- to a certain point.

I'd appreciate it if all
concerned would close this thread now.

I think you are overreacting. This was a thread with three (3) postings, in
a high-volume newsgroup, with no indication that it would continue (except
maybe with a pointer to whatever posting the OP wanted to correct, or to his
correction).

/Jorgen

--
// Jorgen Grahn <grahn@ Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu
\X/ snipabacken.dyndns.org R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

[Steve Holden]

Jorgen Grahn wrote:

On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:36:24 +0100, Steve Holden <st***@holdenweb.comwrote:

>>Jorgen Grahn wrote:

>>>On 1 Oct 2006 10:18:59 -0700, ba*****@gmail.com <ba*****@gmail.comwrote:
....
and I wish to add my findings to the post, to prevent others from
taking the wrong path.

....

>>>In Usenet terms, make a posting with a References: header which mentions the
Message-ID of the bad posting (just like this posting references yours, if
you look closely at the headers). That's easier if the posting hasn't
already expired on your server, but by no means impossible if it has.

/Jorgen

Since this message was never on topic,

I disagree; it was a technical question on how to handle a discussion in
this newsgroup, and IMHO that is always on topic -- to a certain point.

>>I'd appreciate it if all
concerned would close this thread now.

I think you are overreacting. This was a thread with three (3) postings, in
a high-volume newsgroup, with no indication that it would continue (except
maybe with a pointer to whatever posting the OP wanted to correct, or to his
correction).

I probably was. I also missed the (in retrospect, fairly clear)
implication that it was an old *c.l.py* post that was being discussed.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden [phone] [phone]
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://holdenweb.blogspot.com
Recent Ramblings http://del.icio.us/steve.holden

[Tim Roberts]

Jorgen Grahn <gr********@snipabacken.dyndns.orgwrote:

>
On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:36:24 +0100, Steve Holden <st***@holdenweb.comwrote:

>I'd appreciate it if all
concerned would close this thread now.

I think you are overreacting. This was a thread with three (3) postings, in
a high-volume newsgroup, with no indication that it would continue (except
maybe with a pointer to whatever posting the OP wanted to correct, or to his
correction).

I'm confused. I assumed Steve was just joking with his original request.
Although it might be mirrored on a web site somewhere, this is a Usenet
newsgroup. It is impossible to "close" a thread. The concept simply does
not exist.
--
- Tim Roberts, ti**@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

[Blair P. Houghton]

Tim Roberts wrote:

Although it might be mirrored on a web site somewhere, this is a Usenet
newsgroup. It is impossible to "close" a thread. The concept simply does
not exist.

Google, the new de facto website of record for Usenet, disagrees.

But they do about 10 things totally wrong with Google groups that
I'd've fixed in my spare time in my first week if they'd hired me back
when I was interviewing with them.

So if they want it to work, they know where to find me.

--Blair

P.S. Did I mention? Google's distributed systems are managed with
Python scripts.

[Aahz]

In article <11**********************@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups .com>,
Blair P. Houghton <bl************@gmail.comwrote:

>
But they do about 10 things totally wrong with Google groups that
I'd've fixed in my spare time in my first week if they'd hired me back
when I was interviewing with them.

Only ten?
--
Aahz (aa**@pythoncraft.com) <* http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"If you don't know what your program is supposed to do, you'd better not
start writing it." --Dijkstra

[Blair P. Houghton]

Aahz wrote:

In article <11**********************@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups .com>,
Blair P. Houghton <bl************@gmail.comwrote:

But they do about 10 things totally wrong with Google groups that
I'd've fixed in my spare time in my first week if they'd hired me back
when I was interviewing with them.

Only ten?

I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Their security must have /some/ sort of procedure for extracting
people repairing flaws...

I figure 7-10 days max.

--Blair

[Bryan Olson]

Blair P. Houghton wrote:

But they do about 10 things totally wrong with Google groups that
I'd've fixed in my spare time in my first week if they'd hired me back
when I was interviewing with them.

So if they want it to work, they know where to find me.

Doesn't seem likely, does it? But don't let it stop you. You don't
need Google's permission to build a better Usenet service. They
don't have any copyright on the posts, or other special protection.
I'm a former Googler myself and I use their service all the time,
but if yours is better I'll switch.
--
--Bryan

[Aahz]

In article <4S****************@newssvr29.news.prodigy.net>,
Bryan Olson <fa*********@nowhere.orgwrote:

>Blair P. Houghton wrote:

>>
But they do about 10 things totally wrong with Google groups that
I'd've fixed in my spare time in my first week if they'd hired me back
when I was interviewing with them.

So if they want it to work, they know where to find me.

Doesn't seem likely, does it? But don't let it stop you. You don't
need Google's permission to build a better Usenet service. They
don't have any copyright on the posts, or other special protection.
I'm a former Googler myself and I use their service all the time,
but if yours is better I'll switch.

The problem is the network effect. In this case, what Google has that
can't be replicated is the history of posts.
--
Aahz (aa**@pythoncraft.com) <* http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"If you don't know what your program is supposed to do, you'd better not
start writing it." --Dijkstra

[Blair P. Houghton]

Aahz wrote:

In article <4S****************@newssvr29.news.prodigy.net>,
Bryan Olson <fa*********@nowhere.orgwrote:

Blair P. Houghton wrote:

>
But they do about 10 things totally wrong with Google groups that
I'd've fixed in my spare time in my first week if they'd hired me back
when I was interviewing with them.

So if they want it to work, they know where to find me.

Doesn't seem likely, does it? But don't let it stop you. You don't
need Google's permission to build a better Usenet service. They
don't have any copyright on the posts, or other special protection.
I'm a former Googler myself and I use their service all the time,
but if yours is better I'll switch.

The problem is the network effect. In this case, what Google has that
can't be replicated is the history of posts.

Exactly.

Usenet isn't just the "send this message to all leaf nodes via tree"
behavior,
it's the "show me the message from 1987 or 1988 written by dickie
sexton where
he invents the '(*plonk*)' meme" behavior, and a lot of others.

It would be an interesting script that would crawl through Google's
online
copy of the DejaNews archive (which itself was incomplete, by the way)
to replicate all of that, with complete headers, minus Google's header
munging.

--Blair

[Fredrik Lundh]

Blair P. Houghton wrote:

"show me the message from 1987 or 1988 written by dickie
sexton where he invents the '(*plonk*)' meme" behavior,

these days, you use wikipedia for things like that.

</F>

[Bryan Olson]

Aahz wrote:

The problem is the network effect. In this case, what Google has that
can't be replicated is the history of posts.

There's no magic there. Get them the same way Google and
Dejanews got them, plus you might scrape Google, from some
locality with favorable laws.
--
--Bryan

[Bryan Olson]

Blair P. Houghton wrote:

Usenet isn't just the "send this message to all leaf nodes via tree"
behavior,
it's the "show me the message from 1987 or 1988 written by dickie
sexton where
he invents the '(*plonk*)' meme" behavior, and a lot of others.

That makes Google the only non-broken Usenet service,
the opposite of what the retitling of this thread claims.
--
--Bryan

[Paul Boddie]

Tim Roberts wrote:

>
Although it might be mirrored on a web site somewhere, this is a Usenet
newsgroup. It is impossible to "close" a thread. The concept simply does
not exist.

Apparently, the fashionable approach to "closing a thread" is to post a
critique of thread contributors to one's blog and then finish off with
the words, "Please stop."

http://bright-green.com/blog/2006_10...acker_fud.html

Paul

[Blair P. Houghton]

Bryan Olson wrote:

Blair P. Houghton wrote:

Usenet isn't just the "send this message to all leaf nodes via tree"
behavior,
it's the "show me the message from 1987 or 1988 written by dickie
sexton where
he invents the '(*plonk*)' meme" behavior, and a lot of others.

That makes Google the only non-broken Usenet service,
the opposite of what the retitling of this thread claims.

It takes more than /one/ non-broken behavior to make
a non-broken system.

--Blair

[Blair P. Houghton]

Bryan Olson wrote:

Aahz wrote:

The problem is the network effect. In this case, what Google has that
can't be replicated is the history of posts.

There's no magic there. Get them the same way Google and
Dejanews got them, plus you might scrape Google, from some
locality with favorable laws.

You can do it in America, as long as you don't use their value-added
formatting or data.

Hence, stripping their headers from every message, and un-framing
the messages from their bins.

The original data, with its owner-copyrighted,
revokably-licensed-by-default
attributes, can be recovered.

But some messages can't be seen because their owners already
asked Google not to display them. They're still in the archive:
Google has as much right as anyone to keep what you sent them.
They just don't have the right to display them next to their ads if
you revoke their license. But missing messages are comparatively
rare.

--Blair

[Jorgen Grahn]

On Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:37:24 +0100, Steve Holden <st***@holdenweb.comwrote:

Jorgen Grahn wrote:

....

>I think you are overreacting. This was a thread with three (3) postings, in
a high-volume newsgroup, with no indication that it would continue (except
maybe with a pointer to whatever posting the OP wanted to correct, or to his
correction).

I probably was. I also missed the (in retrospect, fairly clear)
implication that it was an old *c.l.py* post that was being discussed.

Okay.

Naturally, due to my prediction that the thread would die or the OP would
resurface with on-topic stuff, the thread stayed alive and offtopic and the
OP never came back. I'll stop now, honestly ;-)

/Jorgen

--
// Jorgen Grahn <grahn@ Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu
\X/ snipabacken.dyndns.org R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!