Subject: Re: How does Re: work?
From: williamsk@gtephx.UUCP (Kevin W. Williams)
Date: 1991-01-21, 19:15
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <91016.130810LJL4@psuvm.psu.edu>, LJL4@psuvm.psu.edu (Lisa Laidlaw) writes:
> > Would someone explain to me how it could be that I receive posts that
> > are titled as replys to other titles, when I don't get the original?
> > I have already thought about the fact that I don't log on everyday and
> > the original could be dropped from the listing, but I checked this
> > theory and since these are dated in order, and sometimes the title
> > is one that would have to refer to something that happened in a
> > certain episode, the logic of dropping a date that is in the middle
> > of the listing doesn't seem to work.
> > Do you know what I mean?  Not a great explanation, but is it possible
> > that I don't get all posts about TP?  Why might that happen?

Well, Lisa, I hate to break this to you, but USENET is a fairly large, anarchic
cluster of nodes. Every message kind of oozes its way across the network. Most
of the time, they ooze correctly. Occasionally, they ooze into a bad modem,
or a disk that's just about to have a head crash, or a system administrator
that deletes his spool because they need the disk space for real life.
Still, the odds are that the message did get to a large number of people,
some of whom feel compelled to reply. If they ooze a better path, you see
them.
As the old line goes, "Don't worry about how well a dancing bear dances. The
amazing thing is that he dances at all."


Kevin Wayne Williams
     UUCP : ...!ames!ncar!noao!asuvax!gtephx!williamsk

               Remember : Brute force has an elegance all its own.