Subject: What to do about a mislaid posting

16. *****
 Q: I just posted to a wrong newsgroup. Should I explain it in a
follow-up posting?

 A: Not necessarily. Much better to cancel your posting. At least if
you are using rn for reading news, you can cancel your posting as
follows. Go to your posting, start reading it, then apply the
command C on it. In the tin newsreader the cancel command is D. If
you don't want to lose what you wrote, first save your message to a
file with the s option if you are using rn. See the newsreader's
help (h in rn) for more details on the commands. This is much
preferable to following up with an explanation.
   It is a good thing that you care where you post. It is
frustrating to see postings that have nothing to do with the
contents of the newsgroup. Some users are way too careless in this
respect. (I must plead occasionally guilty myself). Posting to a
wrong newsgroup is not even rational, because the chances of getting
a useful response are diminished. Nevertheless, a follow-up
explanatory posting may just double the mistake and draw unnecessary
attention (if you cannot cancel what you posted).
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