In a thread above, I mistakenly called Candie, "Cindy". I immediately
canceled the message and re-sent a corrected one. Yet, when my wife
checked the NG about an hour later on her computer, the original message
still remained. Can someone explain the mysteries of Usenet message
canceling?

--crymad

On 09 Oct 2003, crymad posted the following to rec.food.drink.tea:

In a thread above, I mistakenly called Candie, "Cindy". I
immediately canceled the message and re-sent a corrected one.
Yet, when my wife checked the NG about an hour later on her
computer, the original message still remained. Can someone
explain the mysteries of Usenet message canceling?

Theoretically:

When you send a message to a usenet server, you also have the right
to cancel that message. By sending a cancel command, your original
message will be deleted

Reality:

Usenet messages almost immediately propogate round the globe. Not
every server accepts "cancel" commands and so messages still exist
even after the cancel. Additionally, I've seen cancelled messages
still get indexed in Google's archive. (Granted, you can request
that they be removed, but that's in addition to your cancel
command.)


Basically, if you make a screwup like the one you mentioned, the
better solution is to immediately follow it up with a correction
and apology. This shows that you're aware of your "oops". You never
know. You might cancel the message and have it disappear from your
server and yet it may still show up on Candie's.

It would be nice if it worked automatically around the globe, but
it doesn't.

Derek

--

It's not "free" speech when I have to pay for the privilege
of listening to a message that I don't want to hear.

Derek wrote:

[...]
It would be nice if it worked automatically around the globe, but
it doesn't.

Thanks for clearing this up for me.

--crymad

On 10 Oct 2003, crymad posted the following to rec.food.drink.tea:

Derek wrote:

[...]
It would be nice if it worked automatically around the globe, but
it doesn't.

Thanks for clearing this up for me.

Not a problem. Would it make you feel better to know that I only know
the answer because I asked the same question not too long ago?

Derek

--

Does it seem strange to anyone else that grass roots promotion of
"Take Back Your Time Day" encourages people to give up more of that
precious 'time' to which the day supposedly is dedicated?