Frogleg wrote:

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 15:51:48 -0400, Alexander Pensky
wrote:

"There" is a relative term when discussing Usenet groups. The file will
reach different news servers at different times. Many servers don't
carry binary groups or don't carry alt. groups, and those that do carry
binary groups usually have a very short hold time (a few hours) for the
large files. The common suggestion "post the picture to a.b.p.g and
post a link here" is not that effective; when one of us reads the link
and clicks it, it's *extremely* rare that the picture is also on our
news server at the same moment. Better to find a place to web host the
photos and post the URL here. There are lots of places on the web that
offer free space for photo albums.


Not to be argumentative, but I've never heard that servers which carry
rec.gardens *don't* carry the corresponding binary. Or maybe the folk
who can't reference the pictures just don't complain (highly unlikely,
considering how we complain about *everything* :-) I haven't found
it at all "rare" that pictures referenced here were currently
available. Of course, if I've recently "marked read" and purged the
binary group, and really want to see the pic, I have to go back and
reload current headers.

There is nothing "corresponding" between rec.gardens and a.b.p.g. except
the coincidental fact that both contain the string "gardens" in their name.

If you don't understand why that is so, then you probably don't
understand the difference between alt. groups and regular groups, in
terms of how they are created.

Generally there are two types of news servers, public and private.
Public ones are those that anyone can connect to over the Internet,
usually for a monthly fee. They tend to carry all or most alt. and
binaries groups because they want to attract customers. Private servers
are for use on private networks, for example, many of us use news
servers provided by our employers. These almost never carry binary
groups because it eats too much disk space, and rarely carry alt. groups
because of corporate policy (too many dirty pix, not work-related).

If you only use public news servers, I can see how you might get the
impression that everyone in the world can see alt.binaries.* groups.
It's just not so, however.

- Alex