Is there any way to change the way the RTFM robot assigns message IDs to
FAQs it posts to the Usenet? I got this note in the mail today indicating
that my (and probably other) FAQ is likely being rejected from some sites.
>From: "Dave Nagle" <dnagle@iinet.net.au>
>To: <esmay@syndicomm.com (Dean Esmay)>
>Subject: Re: Usenet Personals: Advice for Straights FAQ (1/3)
>Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 15:49:27 +0800
>Message-ID: <01bd4b2f$e2a8c7a0$02d808cb@bravo>
>X-Priority: 3
>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3
>
>Hi Dean,
>
>One of my interests is checking how well messages are propagating through
>Usenet. [1]
>
>I have noticed that your FAQ does not appear to be arriving at some sites.
>
>It is possible that some sites are dropping the articles because of the use
>of slashes in the Message-ID.
>
>To quote from RFC 1036:
>
> The angle brackets are considered part of the Message-ID. Thus, in
> references to the Message-ID, such as the ihave/sendme and cancel
> control messages, the angle brackets are included. White space
> characters (e.g., blank and tab) are not allowed in a Message-ID.
> Slashes ("/") are strongly discouraged. All characters between the
> angle brackets must be printing ASCII characters.
>
>
>I had a quick look for standard cancel messages, but found none.
>
>Regards,
>...Dave
>
>
>[1] See http://www.iinet.net.au/~dnagle/bignoise.htm
>
>Follow the Article Counts by Newsgroup link, then the aus.personals link.
>
>Previous examples of the problem have scrolled off the list.
When I asked him what would be more acceptaable, he replied as follows:
>From: "Dave Nagle" <dnagle@iinet.net.au>
>To: "Dean Esmay" <esmay@syndicomm.com>
>Subject: Re: Usenet Personals: Advice for Straights FAQ (1/3)
>Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 09:33:17 +0800
>Message-ID: <01bd4bc4$809ba880$02d808cb@bravo>
>X-Priority: 3
>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3
>
>Hi Dean,
>
>According to the RFC, a "|" would be OK, but it's a little unusual.
>
>How about using underscores:
>
>Instead of
>
>Message-ID: personals/straightfaq/part2_889359730@rtfm.mit.edu
>
>use
>
>Message-ID: personals_straightfaq_part2_889359730@rtfm.mit.edu
>
>Regards,
>..Dave