Quote:
Originally Posted by gazfan
As far as I know retention works as if there is a bucket for each group.
Each bucket has a limited size, but some fill up faster than others.
If you choose files from a bucket (group) with minimal traffic you may stand more chance of finding older posts.
Files from a group with heavy traffic (high numbers of large files) will be constantly running out of capacity (overflowing) & each new file posted will always displace an older one.
Files from text groups will usually have much longer retention than files from binary groups, simply because they tend to be smaller.
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Not quite. High-end NSPs (including the Highwinds group, who VM outsource their Usenet supply to) have 99.9% completion and retention across all groups. Basically that means that so long as you're inside the advertised retention (eg 720 days) you will be able to download the articles in question. Groups do not run out of 'space'.
Otherwise you'd have NSPs unable to advertise x days retention, but rather a huge table describing which groups have what retention.
However, from what I heard (and this is basically hearsay) the reason for the variable retention on VM's named server is because of the fact they outsource to the Highwinds GROUP. Sometimes you connect to x reseller within the Group, other times you get y reseller. Apparently some of the resellers have not set the 7 day retention cap for VM customers, others have.
Bear in mind Highwinds resellers have over 700 days retention, the 7 day limit is a VM thing and as such is an imposed hard cap; very likely to reduce the per-subscriber fee from Highwinds to supply the service. Some resellers seem to have the cap implemented, others not.
Personally I wish VM would switch their Usenet supply to Astraweb, ReadNews (Blocknews.net / UsenetNow.net) or even Giganews and keep the full retention. Now that would be awesome.
