No postnews or other Usenet news utilities?

[mwoehlke]

Lucky for you, my own attempt to reply seems to have gone to /dev/null. 
Guess I'll re-hash it below as it is still relevant.

I am TITTTLing this, and CC'ing you to ensure that you notice I have 
done so (and hopefully, so will the rest of this list, but if they 
don't, then shame on /them/ ;-)).

Bruce Wehr wrote:
>> the group has existed for a long time 
>> before you came around and has pre-existing standards, 
>> customs and rules that define what is or is not 
>> "appropriate".
> 
> Oh, so now you presume to know how long I've been around, eh?  Pretty
> clairvoyant of you, no?
> 
> Since you brought the subject up, let me tell you how long I've been around
> Usenet.  (I usually avoid speeches like this; they sound so trite.  But, hey
> ... You started it. :)
> 
> I was introduced to Usenet on or about 1985.  I had been a regular
> participant, a respected member of the community for many years.  I invite
> you to visit Google Groups and search for me: "Bruce Wehr."  See how many
> posts come up.  Read a few.  See if I haven't always respected the Rules of
> Netiquette.  Go ahead ... Find fault with any of my posts.  See how many
> times I've been flamed.  (Congratulations: you are a now a member of an
> elite, exclusive and (thankfully) sparsely populated group: the group of
> those who have flamed me.)

Ok, I accept your challenge. This post, and the previous one, are at 
fault. I don't know what reputation you have on USENET, and I don't have 
time to kill "finding out", but you've already grossly violated 
netiquette for *this* list not once, but twice.

First off, go read <http://cygwin.com/lists.html> (which you should have 
read before posting *anything*), and <http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#TITTL> 
which describes what you should have done with this latest post. Second, 
read <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html>.

To summarize: we didn't need three pages of hysterics and back-story to 
come with your question. Let me re-write your original question in six 
lines (note this includes almost 100% of the /relevant/ information from 
your original post):

===
I need to post a message to a large number of newsgroups. I was hoping 
to find an nntp client for Cygwin that allows scripted posting (maybe 
'postnews'), but after looking at what packages setup would let me 
install, all I found was 'tin', and I couldn't find a way to script 
that. Am I not finding the program I want or is there no such thing? If 
not, are there any plans to add any USENET utilities?
===

There, see? That was *much* easier and more pleasant to read, was not 
hysterical, and summarized both your problem (which, incidentally, has 
nothing at all to do with Cygwin) and the current solution path you are 
exploring (i.e. looking for a scriptable Cygwin program).

> Excuse me while I put on my Gieco Cave Man suit and say, "Perhaps you should
> do a little research next time."  It has been said, "It is better to keep
> your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all
> doubt."  Perhaps that's a lesson you should take to heart.

I agree with both comments. Please follow them next time.

> [snip] As for groups that are dedicated to a local
> area:  are there particular areas where people interested in Pokemon cards
> live?  If so, please enlighten me; I promise to limit my ads to those areas.
> Last time I looked, I could find Pokemon collectors in every city, in every
> state, in every country (yes, my auction is open worldwide), on every
> college campus ...  How would you suggest I make my decision?

IANAUU (I am not a USENET user), but I would think the purpose of 
regional groups is to post about items that *are* specific to a region. 
If your item is *not* specific to a region, then IMO you should restrict 
yourself to posting in non-regional forums.

IMO cross-posting to more than a few groups constitutes "spam". It may 
be well-targeted and relevant (if there was no such thing, spammers 
wouldn't bother), but that doesn't make it "not spam". OTOH, I'll 
concede that *.forsale sounds like a bunch of groups whose purpose of 
existence is to be the target of directed spam.

>>   Either that, or you have been cancelled by the usenet 
>> anti-spam bots for your spamming.  Carry on and it will be 
>> your ISP disconnecting you next.
> 
> Wow.  And, will monkeys start coming out my butt?  (Sorry to everyone else
> out there.  I usually don't talk like this, but I'm really starting to lose
> my patience with this asshole.)

Even if I agreed with you that you *may* have a legitimate reason to 
excessively cross-post, it's generally considered bad form and I 
wouldn't be surprised if you *did* get banned for it. That's not meant 
as a 'I think that's bad, don't do it', but a 'other people IMO probably 
won't like that; proceed at your own risk' warning.

As for your impression of Dave Korn, you might want to re-read your OP, 
read <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html> and then ask 
yourself (especially considering that many people consider such 
excessive cross-posting to be spam) if you're still surprised by Dave's 
response.

-- 
Matthew
Doom doom dooM doo-DooM dOOm DOom doOM... DOOM! -- Gir