Why do USENET articles disappear?
In article <3u6moi$sn2@newsbf02.news.aol.com>,
foo wrote:
>
>I have noticed that some postings are disappearing faster than others. Why
>is that and who decides?
>
Its the size of thearticle. You see, the articles are stored
on disk.An article is encoded in things known as 'bits' which
are written on the disk.A disk is a rotating platter. As anyone
knows centrifugal force will force anything off of a rotating
surface.
As time goes on, the article moves closer and closer to the
edge of the disk, and finally, it flies right off.Of course, the
larger articles (more bits == more weight) tend to fly off faster.
Unix systems have something known as a "sticky bit"
which can help articles remain longer if it is set.Remember, USENET
was originally set up by Unix people, and they knew what they
were doing.
On the other hand, some systems have their own rules, and you
might get a better (or at least more correct) answer by asking
the people who administer your machine.