All GNKSA/U evaluations are compiled by Tim Pierce at <URL:http://http.bsd. uchicago.edu/~twpierce/news/>. Evaluations I conducted are summarised at <URL:http://www.mygale.org/ 11/bubulle/gnksa>

This is the second evaluation of Free Agent (previous evaluation of 1.0.82 version by myself).

The software fails to receive the Good Net-Keeping Seal of Approval for Usenet Software (see <URL:http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/Good_Netkeeping_Seal>) for the following reasons :

• Article headers are not shown by default^*
• Posting articles with an empty subject is possible^*
• Syntax validity checking of From and Reply-To adresses is missing. Using non FQDN adresses (like bubulle@bubhome) is possible without notification.

Some other points, though not required by GNKS/A could be improved :

• The default attribution line for followups could mention the original article Message-Id.
• Obvious errors like posting empty articles or articles with only quoted text should be prevented.

Some flaws of the previous versions have been fixed :

• The software now properly recognizes and acts on Followup-To: poster

Below is the detailed evaluation checklist :

   
Req Itm
                       Sub-    Item   
rd? ##  Description
          item OK?   OK?     Notes   
   
Y    1  Display all essential
header info                 NO
  Y       default is to display
     NO                *
  Y       a) display author
                    YES               *
  Y       b)
display subject                      YES
*
  Y       c) display newsgroups list
YES               *
  Y       d) display Followup-To
list             YES               *
  Y       e)
display Reply-To if /= From:         YES
*
   
Y    2  Provide standard commands
         YES  
  Y       clear                                   YES
        
  Y       separate                                YES 
  Y
a) post a new article                   YES
  Y       b) post a followup
article              YES   
  Y       c) reply by email
  YES
  N       use standard terminology                YES

   
Y    3  Implement cross-posting                           YES   
  Y
    allow user specification                YES
  Y       cross-post (not
multi-post)             YES  
   
Y    4  Change essential headers
                YES
  Y       change headers while editing body       YES

  Y       change Subject                          YES   
  Y       allow
at least 70 chars in subject      YES   
  Y       change Newsgroups
               YES   
  Y       change Followup-To
YES
  Y       allow followup-to: poster               YES
  Y       change
Reply-To                         YES
   
Y    5  Correct Subject headers in
flwup/rply             YES   
  Y       a) prepend "Re: "
(exactly!)            YES   
  Y       b) preserve entire Subject
   YES   
  Y          even subjects > 80 chars long        YES   
   
Y
   6  Respect Followup-To                               YES  
  Y       use
to initialize Newsgroups: in flwup  YES   
  Y       recognize and act on
'poster'           YES
  
Y    7  Followups contain References
        YES   
  Y       contains message-id of original         YES   
  Y
      never truncate individual message-id    YES   
  N       contains
three Refs from original       YES   
  N       contains entire Refs of
original        YES   
   
Y    8  Direct email reply to Reply-To
         YES 
   
Y    9  Quotation and attribution
YES  
  Y       provide method                          YES   
  Y
set off by prepend                      YES               
  Y
attribution line                        YES
  Y         identifies author
                  YES               
  N         gives message-id
           NO                *    
   
Y   10  Subject
is mandatory                              NO   
  Y       do not post empty
or provide none       NO                *   
  Y
allow change while editing body         YES   
   
Y   11  Must provide
valid From: header                   NO
  Y       syntactically valid
              NO                * 
  N       belongs
to the user                     NO                *


Y   12  Must provide cancel                               YES   
  Y
of own articles                         YES   
  Y       *not* of others
                     YES               *
   
N   13
Respect line length, and post WYSIWYG             NO   
  N       line brks
shown are present when posted YES   
  N       do *not* post paragraph w/o
line brks   YES   
  N       warn if body has lines > 80 chars       NO
              *   
  N       external editor conforms
              N/A   
   
N   14  Prevent obvious errors
       NO          
  N       prevent posting empty article           NO

N       prevent posting only quoted text        NO

Notes to the checklist

First a short description of what the columns in this checklist stand for:

Req?:

A "Y" means that the item or subitem is a MUST for the software in order to get the Good Net-Keeping Seal Approval.

ITM ##:

This is the item number in the GNKS document : <URL:http:// www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/Good_Netkeeping_Seal>

Description:

Follow the above link to the original document for a more detailed description and an explanation of the rationale behind it.

Subitem OK ?: and Item OK?:

If the item is required, this is marked "YES" if all _required_ subitems are ok. If it is _not_ required, it is marked "YES" if if _all_ subitems are ok.

Notes:

^*Absolutely _no_ headers are shown by default. The display of all headers may be easily turned on but this MUST be made the default behaviour.

^*This is not the default attribution line (which only gives author identification) but is very easy to setup (Options/Posting Preferences/General)

^*I tried to post with an empty subject. I didn't received any warning from FA. Of course, my news server refused the post, because I use a good news server software...:-)) Anyway, GNKSA/U requires the news client software to prevent posting with empty subjects.

^*No syntax checking seems to be conducted, either in the inital setup process or after configuration changes. If have been able to initially setup the software with bogus address like "bubulle@bubhome". I was also able to change this to things like "bubulle@" or "bubulle@.bubhome.frmug.fr.net" and so on....A good news server software (INN, of course...:-)) will refuse this for the from field but accepts it for the reply-to field. Anyway, the checkins HAS to be made by the news software client according to GNKSA/U

^*This may be considered impossible on a single user (no real system administrator) platform.

^*This is feasible, but not easily. One has to pick up the email address/Real name of the original author and then configure FA to use it. IMHO this is a consequence of the impossibility of checking email adresses (maybe a check of the Organization field could be added?). Thus, I consider that in a normal use, it is not possible to cancel articles posted by others.

^*The default wrapping margin is "correctly" setup at 70 characters. It is possible to change it to anything else without warning about Netiquette or something like this. It could imho be improved. On the other hand, even with the 70 characters default, it is possible to post wider articles without notifications (by using lines without spaces). A warning would also be a good idea there.