XanaNews Statistic for comp.mail.pine. 10/1/2021 12:38:56 AM

From article 14272 (9/1/2021 7:09:45 AM) to article 14293 (9/29/2021
8:35:00 PM)

Number of threads ................... 5
Number of articles .................. 22
Average articles per thread ......... 4.40
Number of unanswered posts .......... 3
Number of posts from XanaNews users .. 4

Top Threads

Ranking Articles Subject
------- -------- ----------------------------------
1 13 Alpine 2.25 released
2 6 How Do I Stop Monthly Query To Move Mail?

Top Posters

Ranking Articles Name Most Used Newsreader
------- -------- -------------------------- --------------------
1 4 Dennis Davis trn
2 4 Eduardo Chappa
3 3 NotReal XanaNews
4 2 Adam H. Kerman trn
5 2 Chime Hart
6 2 J.O. Aho Mozilla
7 1 Darren tin
8 1 Jean-Pierre Coulon Alpine
9 1 The Doctor XanaNews
10 1 Nikki Thoth
11 1 Thomas A. Sweatt slrn

Top Newsreaders

Ranking Articles Newsreader Users
------- -------- -------------------------------------------- -----
1 6 trn 2
2 6 <unknown> 2
3 4 XanaNews 2
4 2 Mozilla 1
5 1 tin 1
6 1 Alpine 1
7 1 Thoth 1
8 1 slrn 1

--
The lie of USenet is dying is rebuff by these statistics
Usenet lives or the internet dies

In article <sj6ae2$2u53$37@gallifrey.nk.ca>,
The Doctor <doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca> wrote:
>XanaNews Statistic for comp.mail.pine. 10/1/2021 12:38:56 AM

....

>Top Newsreaders
>
>Ranking Articles Newsreader Users
>------- -------- -------------------------------------------- -----
> 1 6 trn 2
> 2 6 <unknown> 2
> 3 4 XanaNews 2
> 4 2 Mozilla 1
> 5 1 tin 1
> 6 1 Alpine 1
> 7 1 Thoth 1
> 8 1 slrn 1

Note that recent versions of alpine include this enhancement:

* Modifications to protect the privacy of users:
+ Alpine does not generate Sender or X-X-Sender by default by enabling
Do Not Generate Sender Header as the default.
+ Alpine does not disclose User Agent by default by enabling Suppress
User Agent When Sending by default.

So the stats for alpine use are likely to be understated. I suspect
that at least four of the "<unknown>" category are a recent version
of alpine being used to access Intenet news.
--
Dennis Davis <dennisdavis@fastmail.fm>

Dennis Davis <dennisdavis@fastmail.fm> wrote:
>The Doctor <doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca> wrote:
>>XanaNews Statistic for comp.mail.pine. 10/1/2021 12:38:56 AM

>...

>>Top Newsreaders
>>
>>Ranking Articles Newsreader Users
>>------- -------- -------------------------------------------- -----
>> 1 6 trn 2
>> 2 6 <unknown> 2
>> 3 4 XanaNews 2
>> 4 2 Mozilla 1
>> 5 1 tin 1
>> 6 1 Alpine 1
>> 7 1 Thoth 1
>> 8 1 slrn 1

>Note that recent versions of alpine include this enhancement:

> * Modifications to protect the privacy of users:
> + Alpine does not generate Sender or X-X-Sender by default by enabling
> Do Not Generate Sender Header as the default.

I'm not sure what the Sender header has ever had to do with generating
statistics about newsreader usage.

There was some weirdness about Sender, X-Sender, etc, on the University
of Washington system that had nothing to do with anything for Internet
Mail and was a semi-proprietary usage of the header. One of the first
things I did upon becoming a pine user was turn off the default in
that setting. It was so long ago, I no longer recall what the weirdness
was. I don't think any alpine version did it.

> + Alpine does not disclose User Agent by default by enabling Suppress
> User Agent When Sending by default.

Did alpine ever have a User-Agent header generated by default? I don't
recall that. Pine used to incorporate its version number into the
Message-ID, which was the usual way one could tell a pine user.

>So the stats for alpine use are likely to be understated. I suspect
>that at least four of the "<unknown>" category are a recent version
>of alpine being used to access Intenet news.

Yads spams these statistics to numerous newsgroups. Please don't
encourage him to continue doing so by following up.

On Sat, 2 Oct 2021, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

>> + Alpine does not disclose User Agent by default by enabling
>> Suppress User Agent When Sending by default.
>
> Did alpine ever have a User-Agent header generated by default? I don't
> recall that. Pine used to incorporate its version number into the
> Message-ID, which was the usual way one could tell a pine user.

Yes, Alpine used to generate the User-Agent header by default, and the
feature. The way to turn it off was to enable the feature

[ ] Suppress User Agent When Sending

on a per-user basis. Now this is the default behavior, meaning that users
that want to disclose that they are using Alpine must disable it
themselves.

To clarify, the reason why this is done is so that attackers are not given
information on programs and/or system that you use by looking at your
messaages. The less information you give them, the better.

--
Eduardo
https://tinyurl.com/yc377wlh (web)
http://repo.or.cz/alpine.git (Git)

Eduardo Chappa <chappa@washington.edu> wrote:
>On Sat, 2 Oct 2021, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

>>> + Alpine does not disclose User Agent by default by enabling
>>> Suppress User Agent When Sending by default.

>>Did alpine ever have a User-Agent header generated by default? I don't
>>recall that. Pine used to incorporate its version number into the
>>Message-ID, which was the usual way one could tell a pine user.

>Yes, Alpine used to generate the User-Agent header by default, and the
>feature.

I guess I remember this. I looked at a Message-ID; alpine no longer puts
its version number into the Message-ID and the machine name's domain is
ROT-13 encoded. I suppose this was all done around the same time.

>The way to turn it off was to enable the feature

> [ ] Suppress User Agent When Sending

>on a per-user basis. Now this is the default behavior, meaning that users
>that want to disclose that they are using Alpine must disable it
>themselves.

>To clarify, the reason why this is done is so that attackers are not given
>information on programs and/or system that you use by looking at your
>messaages. The less information you give them, the better.

On Sat, 2 Oct 2021, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

> Eduardo Chappa <chappa@washington.edu> wrote:
>> On Sat, 2 Oct 2021, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>
>>>> + Alpine does not disclose User Agent by default by enabling
>>>> Suppress User Agent When Sending by default.
>
>>> Did alpine ever have a User-Agent header generated by default? I don't
>>> recall that. Pine used to incorporate its version number into the
>>> Message-ID, which was the usual way one could tell a pine user.
>
>> Yes, Alpine used to generate the User-Agent header by default, and the
>> feature.
>
> I guess I remember this. I looked at a Message-ID; alpine no longer puts
> its version number into the Message-ID and the machine name's domain is
> ROT-13 encoded. I suppose this was all done around the same time.

I think that ROT-13 comes from the time Alpine was Pine. Alpine attempts
to use the domain that comes for your Domain Name variable, so if you
configure that to any domain it will not use your loal domain.

--
Eduardo
https://tinyurl.com/yc377wlh (web)
http://repo.or.cz/alpine.git (Git)