Just curious, why is there so much political discussion on a Raspberry Pi echo?

Is someone mis-gating this echo?


--- WWIV 5.7.0.development
* Origin: ** The Trading Post [SOUTH] BBS -=- Columbia, SC ** (1:123/126)

Craig Dooley <nospam.Craig.Dooley@f126.n123.z1.fidonet.org> wrote:

Just curious, why is there so much political discussion on a Raspberry Pi echo?

Because this place is filled with old miserable assholes living in the
past, thinking they know everything because they can program in assembly language.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 27 Mar 2021 at 18:36:23 GMT, Craig Dooley <Craig Dooley> wrote:

Just curious, why is there so much political discussion on a Raspberry Pi echo?

Is someone mis-gating this echo?

Echo? Gating? What are you talking about?

--
Tim

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

BY: A. Dumas(3:770/3)

Because this place is filled with old miserable assholes living in the past, thinking they know everything because they can program in assembly language.

LOL!

Nice answer!


--- WWIV 5.7.0.development
* Origin: ** The Trading Post [SOUTH] BBS -=- Columbia, SC ** (1:123/126)

BY: TimS(3:770/3)

Echo? Gating? What are you talking about?

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet. From the looks of some of the messages (all political stuff), it appears someone is bringing in a political message area from another network or usenet group and porting it to this echo.

I've no authority over this echo, but I'd prefer to read about Raspberry Pi computers here than politics.


--- WWIV 5.7.0.development
* Origin: ** The Trading Post [SOUTH] BBS -=- Columbia, SC ** (1:123/126)

On Sun, 28 Mar 2021 15:28:21 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

TimS wrote:

Craig Dooley wrote:

Just curious, why is there so much political discussion on a Raspberry
Pi echo?

Is someone mis-gating this echo?

Echo? Gating? What are you talking about?

Sounds like FIDO speak

Arrr, its just the Internet Spring - 'tis exactly the same on r.a.s.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

TimS wrote:

Craig Dooley wrote:

Just curious, why is there so much political discussion on a Raspberry Pi
echo?

Is someone mis-gating this echo?

Echo? Gating? What are you talking about?

Sounds like FIDO speak

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

In article <icbi46F58cbU2@mid.individual.net>,
Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

TimS wrote:

Craig Dooley wrote:

Just curious, why is there so much political discussion on a Raspberry Pi >>> echo?

Is someone mis-gating this echo?

Echo? Gating? What are you talking about?

Sounds like FIDO speak

Original poster is at "f126.n123.z1.fidonet.org" so, yes.

To the OP: It's a USENET newsgroup. No idea what wormholes and portals
people on FIDO are seeing this through, but there has been some offtopic/crossposted stuff. It happens on USENET.

--
--------------------------------------+------------------------------------ Mike Brown: mjb[-at-]signal11.org.uk | http://www.signal11.org.uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On Sun, 28 Mar 2021 10:20:43 +1300
nospam.Craig.Dooley@f126.n123.z1.fidonet.org (Craig Dooley) wrote:

BY: TimS(3:770/3)

Echo? Gating? What are you talking about?

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet. From the looks
of some of the messages (all political stuff), it appears someone is
bringing in a political message area from another network or usenet
group and porting it to this echo.

I've no authority over this echo, but I'd prefer to read about
Raspberry Pi computers here than politics.

Then do so.

We in Usenet have this thing called a subject header, whereby we can
make informed decisions about what to read and what to ignore.

If there is insufficient interest in off-topic subjects, they die
quickly.

--
Joe

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 27 Mar 2021 at 21:20:43 GMT, Craig Dooley <Craig Dooley> wrote:

BY: TimS(3:770/3)

Echo? Gating? What are you talking about?

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet.

Oh no it isn't. It's the comp.sys.raspberry-pi Usenet group. If you don't have suffient tools to filter out stuff you don't want to see, that's hardly our fault. And why didn't you prefix your OP's Subject: line with OT ?

--
Tim

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Craig Dooley to Tims on Sun Mar 28 2021 10:20:43

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet.

it is a gated newsgroup... conversations go to both sides of the gate...


)\/(ark
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: SouthEast Star Mail HUB - SESTAR (1:3634/12)

BY: Mike(3:770/3)

To the OP: It's a USENET newsgroup. No idea what wormholes and portals people on FIDO are seeing this through, but there has been some offtopic/crossposted stuff. It happens on USENET.

Interesting, because I'm reading it on a Fidonet echo. So it sounds like someone is gating a usenet group to Fidonet and back. Not sure why, since politics and Raspberry Pi computers don't necessarily go together.

I'm not trying to police a usenet group, I'm just annoyed that someone has combined the 2 groups.

Shrug. Oh well, nothing I can do about it.


--- WWIV 5.7.0.development
* Origin: ** The Trading Post [SOUTH] BBS -=- Columbia, SC ** (1:123/126)

BY: TimS(3:770/3)

Oh no it isn't. It's the comp.sys.raspberry-pi Usenet group. If you
don't have
suffient tools to filter out stuff you don't want to see, that's hardly
our
fault. And why didn't you prefix your OP's Subject: line with OT ?

From my point of view, it's just a Fidonet echo. I was not aware that it was gated to Usenet. As far as I knew, it was a Fidonet echo that perhaps someone had mis-configured and was gating a politics echo to it.

I simply asked a question.


--- WWIV 5.7.0.development
* Origin: ** The Trading Post [SOUTH] BBS -=- Columbia, SC ** (1:123/126)

BY: mark lewis(1:3634/12)

it is a gated newsgroup... conversations go to both sides of the gate...

Thank you, Mark. I was not aware it was a gated group.

-Craig

--- WWIV 5.7.0.development
* Origin: ** The Trading Post [SOUTH] BBS -=- Columbia, SC ** (1:123/126)

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Craig Dooley to Mark Lewis on Sun Mar 28 2021 13:09:03

it is a gated newsgroup... conversations go to both sides of
the gate...

Thank you, Mark. I was not aware it was a gated group.

you are quite welcome...


)\/(ark
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: SouthEast Star Mail HUB - SESTAR (1:3634/12)

mark lewis <nospam.mark.lewis@f1.n770.z7522.fidonet.org> wrote:

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Craig Dooley to Tims on Sun Mar 28 2021 10:20:43

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet.

it is a gated newsgroup... conversations go to both sides of the gate...

And you guys (and/or your admin) should fix that damn clock! All date/time headers from fido are wrong.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Hello Craig!

Sunday March 28 2021 11:55, you wrote to Mike:

BY: Mike(3:770/3)

To the OP: It's a USENET newsgroup. No idea what wormholes and
portals people on FIDO are seeing this through, but there has been
some offtopic/crossposted stuff. It happens on USENET.

Interesting, because I'm reading it on a Fidonet echo. So it sounds
like someone is gating a usenet group to Fidonet and back. Not sure
why, since politics and Raspberry Pi computers don't necessarily go together.

I'm not trying to police a usenet group, I'm just annoyed that someone
has combined the 2 groups.

Shrug. Oh well, nothing I can do about it.

It is coming from (via seenbys ) :

System : Agency HUB Gateway
Sysop : Paul Hayton@f3.n770.z3.fidonet.org
Location : New Zealand
Phone : -Unpublished-
Speed : 300
Flags :
P Flag : Pvt
Uplink : 770/0
Region : 57
URL : (null)



Vincent

--- Mageia Linux v7.1 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.21/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

Hello A!

Sunday March 28 2021 17:45, you wrote to mark lewis:

mark lewis <nospam.mark.lewis@f1.n770.z7522.fidonet.org> wrote:

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Craig Dooley to Tims on Sun Mar 28 2021 10:20:43

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet.

it is a gated newsgroup... conversations go to both sides of the
gate...

And you guys (and/or your admin) should fix that damn clock! All
date/time headers from fido are wrong.

Some people do not have their TZUTC setting at all.


Vincent

--- Mageia Linux v7.1 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.21/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)

Craig Dooley <nospam.Craig.Dooley@f126.n123.z1.fidonet.org> wrote:

Interesting, because I'm reading it on a Fidonet echo. So it sounds like someone is gating a usenet group to Fidonet and back. Not sure why, since politics and Raspberry Pi computers don't necessarily go together.

I'm not trying to police a usenet group, I'm just annoyed that someone has combined the 2 groups.

Somebody crossposted something to 8 newsgroups and set followups to 4, one
of which was here. Then the usual thing happens where people reply without trimming the followups, and there are now some lovely flames going.
You probably can't see the crossposts if you're viewing from Fidonet.

As ever, if helps if people refrain from feeding the troll.
(and I suppose you on Fido don't have killfiles either, and killing
crossposts isn't a thing you can do)

Theo

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

In article <1616946921@f126.n123.z1.fidonet.org>,
Craig Dooley <nospam.Craig.Dooley@f126.n123.z1.fidonet.org> wrote:

Interesting, because I'm reading it on a Fidonet echo. So it sounds like >someone is gating a usenet group to Fidonet and back. Not sure why,

It's a valid/useful thing to do. People also gateway the USENET groups into online web forums (fora?) where people don't realise that they are participating in a USENET group (which leads to questions about 'postings
in this forum' and 'why isn't the moderator deleting this post!" etc.)

And sometimes to and from e-mail style mailing lists.

since
politics and Raspberry Pi computers don't necessarily go together.

Naturally, they don't belong together here (here as in "comp.sys.raspberry-pi") either.

But crossposting from off-topic groups is a thing, sadly. As is off-topic discussion within the group.

In your posts, you refer to other posters as (I assume) the FIDOnet entities

BY: Mike(3:770/3) and BY: TimS(3:770/3) -- I suspect whoever at 3:770/3 is running the gateway, and is translating email addresses over here into
FIDOnet address there, and v.v. -- it's a while since I've used FIDOnet :)

--
--------------------------------------+------------------------------------ Mike Brown: mjb[-at-]signal11.org.uk | http://www.signal11.org.uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: A. Dumas to mark lewis on Sun Mar 28 2021 17:45:35

And you guys (and/or your admin) should fix that damn clock! All date/time headers from fido are wrong.

please direct your complaints to the proper place as depicted in every message gated from fidonet into the group... the necessary data should be easily found in the headers...


)\/(ark
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: SouthEast Star Mail HUB - SESTAR (1:3634/12)

Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Vincent Coen to A. Dumas on Sun Mar 28 2021 20:38:33

Some people do not have their TZUTC setting at all.

and sometimes the problem is the gating software... especially if it doesn't properly convert the timestamps to whatever is the proper form for newsgroups... the question is should it convert all to UTC or to the gateway's
local time or leave them all as posted...


)\/(ark
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: SouthEast Star Mail HUB - SESTAR (1:3634/12)

mark lewis <nospam.mark.lewis@f1.n770.z7549.fidonet.org> wrote:

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: A. Dumas to mark lewis on Sun Mar 28 2021 17:45:35

And you guys (and/or your admin) should fix that damn clock! All date/time headers from fido are wrong.

please direct your complaints to the proper place as depicted in every message
gated from fidonet into the group... the necessary data should be easily found
in the headers...

It's easily found all right but it is on you. You are bothering us with
that faulty gateway, *you* are using that software. I don't know Paul
Hayton, I don't have an account on his system.

No conversion is needed, just a correct format of the Date: header. I
suspect it is being converted wrongly; it should just use the current local time of the gateway computer with the correct timezone added. It says +13
which seems right, so just use that without any time conversion. Right now,
all fido posts appear to be from the past, sometimes older than the post
they are replying to.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Vincent Coen <nospam.Vincent.Coen@f1.n250.z2.fidonet.org> wrote:

Hello A!

Sunday March 28 2021 17:45, you wrote to mark lewis:

mark lewis <nospam.mark.lewis@f1.n770.z7522.fidonet.org> wrote:

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Craig Dooley to Tims on Sun Mar 28 2021 10:20:43

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet.

it is a gated newsgroup... conversations go to both sides of the
gate...

And you guys (and/or your admin) should fix that damn clock! All
date/time headers from fido are wrong.

Some people do not have their TZUTC setting at all.

It doesn't matter what time the client has set, the *gateway* posts, so it should use its local time with correct timezone info.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 29/03/2021 08:17, A. Dumas wrote:

No conversion is needed, just a correct format of the Date: header. I
suspect it is being converted wrongly; it should just use the current local time of the gateway computer with the correct timezone added. It says +13 which seems right, so just use that without any time conversion. Right now, all fido posts appear to be from the past, sometimes older than the post
they are replying to.

Something bigger wrong than that. My guess would be are in a zone like
Eastern America UTC-4, which should be applied, however it is applying
New Zealand UTC+13. How does NZ get +13? Shouldn't it be -11? Is it
something to do with daylight saving.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: A. Dumas to mark lewis on Mon Mar 29 2021 07:17:51

And you guys (and/or your admin) should fix that damn clock! All date/time headers from fido are wrong.

please direct your complaints to the proper place as depicted in every message
gated from fidonet into the group... the necessary data should be easily found
in the headers...

It's easily found all right but it is on you.

no, it is not...

You are bothering us with that faulty gateway, *you* are using that software.

no, we are not using that software... we have no control over what someone else runs on their BBS system... that someone has chosen to run a gateway package and connect an echo with a newsgroup is their decision and their's
alone... since you are the one(s) being bothered, it is on you to complain to the gate operator... most things look just fine over here...

I don't know Paul Hayton, I don't have an account on his system.

email doesn't work?? interesting...

No conversion is needed, just a correct format of the Date: header. I suspect it is being converted wrongly; it should just use the current local time of the gateway computer with the correct timezone added.

are you saying that my message, written from the US east coast (UTC -0400 right now) should have its timestamp thrown out and the time my message is processed at the gateway should be used?

or are you saying that the gateway software should convert my UTC -0400 time stamp to UTC +1300?? that should be easily handled in the cases where the message has a proper TZUTC control line...

however, TZUTC is a relatively new ""feature"" in fidonet messages... it being only a decade or so old... it is not required by the fidonet standards and there's a lot of older software being used that has no idea what TZUTC
is so their posts carry only the timestamp with no indicator of the originator's timezone... if the original software and standards had specified that the message time stamps were to be in UTC this would not be a problem but
fidonet is a hobby network with a ton of software written by hobbists... we won't even talk about the time stamps of the messages written by users and uploaded to the BBSes using offline messaging standards like QWK, QWKE, and
Bluewave which also know nothing about timezones...

It says +13 which seems right,

since the gateway is located in New Zealand, that sounds about right...

so just use that without any time conversion.

see above...

Right now, all fido posts appear to be from the past, sometimes older than the post they are replying to.

we see similar on this side of the fence, at times, too... we don't worry about it since we're more interested in the message bodys (first), maybe who wrote the message (second), and possibly some third thing related to the
message or conversation or people involved...


)\/(ark
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: SouthEast Star Mail HUB - SESTAR (1:3634/12)

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: A. Dumas to Vincent Coen on Mon Mar 29 2021 07:20:06

Some people do not have their TZUTC setting at all.

It doesn't matter what time the client has set, the *gateway* posts, so it should use its local time with correct timezone info.

it absolutely does matter! otherwise you might have 100 messages all with the same time stamp on them instead of the real one for when the message was actually written... you're not thinking this through...


)\/(ark
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: SouthEast Star Mail HUB - SESTAR (1:3634/12)

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> writes:

mark lewis <nospam.mark.lewis@f1.n770.z7522.fidonet.org> wrote:

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Craig Dooley to Tims on Sun Mar 28 2021 10:20:43

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet.

it is a gated newsgroup... conversations go to both sides of the gate...

And you guys (and/or your admin) should fix that damn clock! All date/time headers from fido are wrong.

Wow, this again. I remember a very, *very* long thread about wrong
timezones and gateway software in the last few years. Don't remember the
Usenet group though. As I recall the discussion never went anywhere so I suppose the gateway software didn't get fixed either.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 29 Mar 2021 at 13:59:53 BST, Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> wrote:

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> writes:

mark lewis <nospam.mark.lewis@f1.n770.z7522.fidonet.org> wrote:

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Craig Dooley to Tims on Sun Mar 28 2021 10:20:43
CD> This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet.

it is a gated newsgroup... conversations go to both sides of the gate... >>

And you guys (and/or your admin) should fix that damn clock! All date/time >> headers from fido are wrong.

Wow, this again. I remember a very, *very* long thread about wrong
timezones and gateway software in the last few years. Don't remember the Usenet group though. As I recall the discussion never went anywhere so I suppose the gateway software didn't get fixed either.

Is there a header or something else that unambiguously indicates that a
message has been gatewayed through to Usenet? Thne I could filter it out.

--
Tim

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

mark lewis <nospam.mark.lewis@f1.n770.z7563.fidonet.org> wrote:

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: A. Dumas to Vincent Coen on Mon Mar 29 2021 07:20:06

Some people do not have their TZUTC setting at all.

It doesn't matter what time the client has set, the *gateway* posts, so it should use its local time with correct timezone info.

it absolutely does matter! otherwise you might have 100 messages all with the same time stamp on them instead of the real one for when the message was actually written... you're not thinking this through...

)\/(ark

Oh fuck off.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> wrote:

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> writes:

mark lewis <nospam.mark.lewis@f1.n770.z7522.fidonet.org> wrote:

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Craig Dooley to Tims on Sun Mar 28 2021 10:20:43

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet.

it is a gated newsgroup... conversations go to both sides of the gate...

And you guys (and/or your admin) should fix that damn clock! All date/time >> headers from fido are wrong.

Wow, this again. I remember a very, *very* long thread about wrong
timezones and gateway software in the last few years. Don't remember the Usenet group though. As I recall the discussion never went anywhere so I suppose the gateway software didn't get fixed either.

Yeah, it was here.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

TimS <timstreater@greenbee.net> wrote:

On 29 Mar 2021 at 13:59:53 BST, Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> wrote:

A. Dumas <alexandre@dumas.fr.invalid> writes:

mark lewis <nospam.mark.lewis@f1.n770.z7522.fidonet.org> wrote:

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Craig Dooley to Tims on Sun Mar 28 2021 10:20:43

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet.

it is a gated newsgroup... conversations go to both sides of the gate... >>>

And you guys (and/or your admin) should fix that damn clock! All date/time >>> headers from fido are wrong.

Wow, this again. I remember a very, *very* long thread about wrong
timezones and gateway software in the last few years. Don't remember the
Usenet group though. As I recall the discussion never went anywhere so I
suppose the gateway software didn't get fixed either.

Is there a header or something else that unambiguously indicates that a message has been gatewayed through to Usenet? Thne I could filter it out.

Any of these, I guess:

Organization: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | bbs.nz/#Fidonet
User-Agent: VSoup v1.2.9.47Beta [95/NT]
X-Mailconverter: SoupGate-Win32 v1.05

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: Anssi Saari to A. Dumas on Mon Mar 29 2021 15:59:53

Wow, this again. I remember a very, *very* long thread about wrong timezones and gateway software in the last few years. Don't remember
the Usenet group though.

probably this one... it is a fairly popular area in fidonet... especially when one doesn't want to have to set up a news reader...

As I recall the discussion never went anywhere so I suppose the
gateway software didn't get fixed either.

it is next to impossible to fix a binary without the source code or someone very adept at binary level hacking ;)


)\/(ark
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: SouthEast Star Mail HUB - SESTAR (1:3634/12)

Re: Re: Politics on this echo?
By: A. Dumas to mark lewis on Mon Mar 29 2021 14:31:03

Some people do not have their TZUTC setting at all.

It doesn't matter what time the client has set, the *gateway* posts, so it should use its local time with correct timezone info.

it absolutely does matter! otherwise you might have 100 messages all with the same time stamp on them instead of the real one for when the message was actually written... you're not thinking this through...

Oh fuck off.

typical "A. Dum(b)as(s)" response ;)


)\/(ark
--- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
* Origin: SouthEast Star Mail HUB - SESTAR (1:3634/12)

On Mon, 29 Mar 2021 15:59:53 +0300
Anssi Saari <as@sci.fi> wrote:

headers from fido are wrong.

Wow, this again. I remember a very, *very* long thread about wrong
timezones and gateway software in the last few years. Don't remember the Usenet group though. As I recall the discussion never went anywhere so I suppose the gateway software didn't get fixed either.

It seems that there's no way to fix it since the original
timestamps do not always carry timezone information. Put it in the bin with
two digit years, indistinguishable date orderings and other unfixable bugs
and move on.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith | Directable Mirror Arrays C:\>WIN | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins. | licences available see
You lose and Bill collects. | http://www.sohara.org/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

In article <1616941244@f126.n123.z1.fidonet.org>,
Craig Dooley <nospam.Craig.Dooley@f126.n123.z1.fidonet.org> wrote:

BY: TimS(3:770/3)

Echo? Gating? What are you talking about?

This is the Raspberry Pi Discussion Echo on Fidonet.

No, it isn't. It's comp.sys.raspberry-pi, a Usenet newsgroup. Somebody on Fidonet (hard to believe it's still around...last time I used it was over 25 years ago, and one of the local sysops in 1:209 ran a Usenet gateway back
then) may be mapping it to the local idiom, but that's all it is: a mapping from one network to another.

_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 2021-03-28 06:10, A. Dumas wrote:

Craig Dooley <nospam.Craig.Dooley@f126.n123.z1.fidonet.org> wrote:

Just curious, why is there so much political discussion on a Raspberry Pi
echo?

Because this place is filled with old miserable assholes living in the
past, thinking they know everything because they can program in assembly language.

OK, Moocher.

OK, Doomer.

OK, Lib-Tard

(you're welcome)

you young whippersnappers, GET OFF MY LAWN!

(heh heh heh)


--
(aka 'Bombastic Bob' in case you wondered)

'Feeling with my fingers, and thinking with my brain' - me

'your story is so touching, but it sounds just like a lie'
"Straighten up and fly right"

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 28 Mar 2021 at 07:27p, Theo pondered and said...

Somebody crossposted something to 8 newsgroups and set followups to 4,
one of which was here. Then the usual thing happens where people reply without trimming the followups, and there are now some lovely flames going. You probably can't see the crossposts if you're viewing from Fidonet.

As ever, if helps if people refrain from feeding the troll.
(and I suppose you on Fido don't have killfiles either, and killing crossposts isn't a thing you can do)

Hi Theo.

Just catching up on this thread. I run the gateway and will try to emulate
the killfile idea to prevent the non raspberry pi cross posted stuff from passing across to Fidonet. Not sure how successful I'll be but would like to try. If you have any suggested newsgroups that I should try to filter as junk groups can you let me know please :)

Best, Paul

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)

On 28 Mar 2021 at 07:36a, Craig Dooley pondered and said...

Just curious, why is there so much political discussion on a Raspberry
Pi echo?
Is someone mis-gating this echo?

Hi Craig

The newsgroup comp.sys.raspberry-pi is bi-directonaly gated to the Fidonet echomail area RBERRYPI , this ha been for the most part without issue for a number of years with folks from both sides of the gateway chatting about Rpi related topics.

The gateway software is legacy stuff called SoupGate. The gateway is based in New Zealand where we are UTC +1200 and during our daylight savings time
(Sept - April) it's UTC +1300 ... so messages in/out via nodes from Fido have this time stamp applied. Of course Fido nodes are also all around the globe
so we see messages in Fido here in NZ from our yesterday while we post in
other folks future :)

The gateway attempts to filter out some spam but is not (nor will never be) 100% effective at it.

Best, Paul
--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)

On Sun, 09 May 2021 21:12:20 +1200, Paul Hayton wrote:

Just catching up on this thread. I run the gateway and will try to
emulate the killfile idea to prevent the non raspberry pi cross posted
stuff from passing across to Fidonet. Not sure how successful I'll be
but would like to try. If you have any suggested newsgroups that I
should try to filter as junk groups can you let me know please :)

No Newsgroup suggestions for going under the ban hammer, but would it be possible to add Spam Assassin to your spam filtering pipeline? Its a
good, flexible an configurable email spam filter. At the least, it would
be interesting to see if it is also useful for filtering newsgroup or
Fidonet message streams.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 09 May 2021 at 07:30p, Martin Gregorie pondered and said...

No Newsgroup suggestions for going under the ban hammer, but would it be possible to add Spam Assassin to your spam filtering pipeline? Its a
good, flexible an configurable email spam filter. At the least, it would be interesting to see if it is also useful for filtering newsgroup or Fidonet message streams.

Hi there :)

Sorry it's not my area of expertise to set that software up and I'm unsure
how it would integrate into this gateway binary... that said I have attempted to add some newsgroups from some of the more busy political areas in Usenet
to the gateway filter. This is in an attempt to try and reduce gating posts that have been crossed posted into this newsgroup but that also contain
x-post references of the aforementioned political newsgroups.

I can't say it will be 100% but I can try :)

Best, Paul

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)

Paul Hayton <nospam.Paul.Hayton@f100.n770.z3.fidonet.org> wrote:

Just catching up on this thread. I run the gateway and will try to emulate the killfile idea to prevent the non raspberry pi cross posted stuff from passing across to Fidonet. Not sure how successful I'll be but would like
to try. If you have any suggested newsgroups that I should try to filter
as junk groups can you let me know please :)

Generally a good rule of thumb is not to blacklist groups, but to limit crossposts. Something posted to more than maybe two groups has a much
greater likelihood to be spam/trolling.

It won't help the ongoing fires when the discussion splinters off into parts only posted to one group, but should block the initial spark.

Theo
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On Mon, 10 May 2021 19:59:47 +1200, Paul Hayton wrote:

Sorry it's not my area of expertise to set that software up and I'm
unsure how it would integrate into this gateway binary... that said I
have attempted to add some newsgroups from some of the more busy
political areas in Usenet to the gateway filter. This is in an attempt
to try and reduce gating posts that have been crossed posted into this newsgroup but that also contain x-post references of the aforementioned political newsgroups.

OK, in summary, Spamassassin (aka SA) is a filter, written in Perl, that
scores messages for spamminess and can be added into almost any pipeline.
It reads messages from stdin, examines (both headers and body to
calculates a spaminess score and writes the message on stdout, adding
headers containing the score and a list of the rules that the message triggered. SA rules contain a regular expression and a score - the score
is added to the overall message spamminess score if the regular
expression matched anything in the message. Thats all SA does: calculates
a score (by convention less than 5 is ham, over 5 is spam), adds some spam-related headers to vte message ande passes it on.

I run it as part of a pipeline that passes messages read via getmail
through SA and a spam discriminator and delivers non-spam to a local MTA
for delivery on my local LAN. The discriminator quarantines any messages
with a spam score of over 5.

Using the full SA may be a bit OTT for what you're trying to do, though
loking at its documentation may give you some goo ideas, but writing some
sort of filter in Perl that uses a configurable collection of regexes
that trigger on spam indicators should be doable.

HTH








--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)

On 10 May 2021 at 12:00p, Theo pondered and said...

Generally a good rule of thumb is not to blacklist groups, but to limit crossposts. Something posted to more than maybe two groups has a much greater likelihood to be spam/trolling.

Thanks Theo :) Yep I have attempted to do this and targeted a number of political newsgroups. I guess time will tell but at least we can try.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)

On 10 May 2021 at 10:53a, Martin Gregorie pondered and said...

Using the full SA may be a bit OTT for what you're trying to do, though loking at its documentation may give you some goo ideas, but writing some sort of filter in Perl that uses a configurable collection of regexes
that trigger on spam indicators should be doable.

HTH

Thanks for taking the time to walk me through SA. It's likely outside my technical ability to implement but good to know the background etc. I've started with pulling some levers I have available in the gating tools in that hope that may mitigate the spam x-post stuff in the newsgroup passing over to the Fido side.

Anywhoo happy Tuesday from over here in this side of the world.
--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)