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:
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
Thanks for clearing this up for me.
--crymad
On 10 Oct 2003, crymad posted the following to rec.food.drink.tea:
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
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