GPS Question.... Yet Again

"Montblack" wrote in message
...
("Darrel Toepfer" wrote)
Wasn't meant for usenet, sent a kill request in its regard, that wasn't
honored by the ISP...

If it was an "unsend" "unsend" that got away from you, how does a kill
request work? Have many people used this service/feature?

ISTM that a kill request would need to be sent AND processed in the blink
of
an eye for it to catch an "unsend" "unsend."

Usenet supports a device known as a "cancel post". It's similar to the
original post, but includes information telling the receiving server to
remove the original post. Yes, when it's used there's a brief period during
which the original post is still visible, until the cancel post catches up
to it. But once the cancel post has made it to the same servers that the
original post made it to, the original post disappears.

At least, that's the theory. In reality, Usenet has no security or
authentication protocols, and cancel posts are (were) regularly abused. A
person with a grudge or who disagreed with another person's viewpoint would
post a fraudulent cancel post, to remove that other person's post. It used
to be that there were so few users on Usenet that the few instances where
cancel posts were abused could be easily dealt with. But that hasn't been
true in a long time, and most ISPs simply ignore cancel posts altogether.

So, Darrel presumably tried to send a cancel post, but since nearly all ISPs
simply don't honor them anymore, it had no effect. It's possible that you
would have still seen the original post, even if it did have an effect,
depending on when he sent the original, when he sent the cancel, and when
you checked the latest messages on your news server. But in reality, it's
unusual these days for a cancel post to have any effect anywhere.

Pete