On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:46:34 -0400, jeff_wisnia
wrote:


My email client (Thunderbird) allows cancelling messages...very handy
feature for "why did I say that" times )

That might work for e-mail, but my understanding is that moments after
you send a post to a news server it gets spread to servers all over the
planet and is then impossible to "cancel" or "delete".

Can someone please tell me if I've got that right?

Jeff

My news reader help file snip.

"Rescind Usenet Post command (Action menu)
Use this command to remove a Usenet message you posted. Rescinding a
message sends a message to your news server asking it to delete the
message. This message is also passed along to the other news servers
on the Internet so that they can delete the message as well."

Now if the news message have already been retrieved - somebody will
see it before the rescind command can be honored.