Hello papercut,
I was going to post the following as an answer, but at the last minute
found that Google Groups does not seem to honor cancel requests
propagated through Usenet servers. (that comment will become more
obvious as you read on).
But since I gathered all of this information, I thought I would
provide it for you as a comment as the information may still be of
value to you:
************************************************
As you can see, once a usenet article is posted, it is difficult to
cancel. It might have been Bob Haldeman that said "It is impossible to
get toothpaste back in the tube" and this is quite similar.
As you may and may not know, Google Answers is a separate entity from
Google and Google Groups and has no influence on helping you to have
your postings removed. In fact, Google Answers Researchers that you
reach here such as myself are not employed by Google Answers, but are
independent contract researchers that are here to help you find
answers and information.
That being said, the following information may be helpful in remedying
your problem by attempting to cancel the message through your
newsreader.
Let's start with a description of Usenet and Usenet News Groups:
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/what-is/part1/
What is Usenet?
"AN APPROXIMATE DESCRIPTION
--------------------------
Usenet is a world-wide distributed discussion system. It consists of
a set of "newsgroups" with names that are classified hierarchically by
subject. "Articles" or "messages" are "posted" to these newsgroups by
people on computers with the appropriate software -- these articles
are
then broadcast to other interconnected computer systems via a wide
variety of networks. Some newsgroups are "moderated"; in these
newsgroups, the articles are first sent to a moderator for approval
before appearing in the newsgroup. Usenet is available on a wide
variety of computer systems and networks, but the bulk of modern
Usenet traffic is transported over either the Internet or UUCP...
WHAT USENET IS NOT
------------------
1. Usenet is not an organization.
No person or group has authority over Usenet as a whole. No one
controls who gets a news feed, which articles are propagated where,
who can post articles, or anything else. There is no "Usenet
Incorporated," nor is there a "Usenet User's Group."
You're on your own..."
You may wish to read this incredibly informative FAQ.
Searching for [cancel +usenet +posting], I located the following for
you:
http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/cancel.html
How can I cancel my Usenet news posting?
Originally from ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/link/tsfaqp.zip
Common Turbo Pascal Questions and Timo's answers
"How one cancels one's own posting is naturally dependent on the
newsreader program that one uses. For example, in Unix rn you can
cancel your posting by pressing C (that is shift-c) when reading your
own posting. In other newsreaders check their help function for the
cancel command. For example in Unix tin the cancel command is D. If
you are using Netscape (Collabra Discussion Groups) choose "Edit" from
the main menu and then select "Cancel Message". Anyway, whichever your
newsreader program first try to see its help for the information.
Confusingly, it may happen that you are unable to cancel your own
posting but get a "You can't cancel someone else's posting" message
instead. That implies that the newssystem at your side has been
configured badly. The sender and your own id do not match. It is not
your fault. There is nothing you can do about that yourself. It is up
to your local newsmanager to set the system right. Contact him/her in
case of this problem...
...For further information on canceling your postings see Jon Bell's
fine "TIP" HOW TO CANCEL AN ARTICLE THAT YOU'VE POSTED which is
regularly posted to the newsgroup Questions & Answers for users new to
the Usenet news.newusers.questions...
To better understand canceling, consider what it technically means.
When you post something your posting propagates as a file throughout
the net. Copies of your file are carried by the news server services
all around the world on the hard disks of the service providers
(ISPs). When you "cancel" your posting with your newsprogram what
really happens is this. Your program sends out another, special-format
posting from you. It is called a cancel message. In fact it is nothing
more than another file sent to propagate all through the system. The
file is in a special format. It contains among other things the
message identification of your original message, which you want erased
from the servers carrying your original posting. Whether your original
message is actually deleted from a server (canceled in that sense)
depends on whether the service in question honors cancel message files
or not. There are a lot of servers on Internet which ignore such
cancel files. Thus there is no guarantee that your original message
will actually disappear. What is certain though, is that the longer
you take to cancel (i.e. tell your newsprogram to send out the cancel
file), the more certain it is that your original message has reached
sites which do not put your cancel message suggestion into effect. In
sum, if you want to cancel, do it right away. After a few days, even
hours, your cancel will be much less effective."
At http://www.aptalaska.net/~kmorgan/cancel.html we find a little
more:
How to cancel an article that you've posted
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Sooner or later it will happen to you. You've posted an article and
then realized that you've committed a horrendous faux pas. Or there's
a really stupid typo or misspelled word. Or you just plain goofed up a
crucial fact. Or you've advertised something for sale, sold it almost
immediately, and your mailbox is still filling up with offers.
You don't (usually) have to suffer like this! Most newsreader programs
allow you "cancel" articles that you've written. This deletes the
article from your own news server, and sends out a special "control
message" that asks all other news servers to delete it, too.
This article is intended (eventually) to describe how to cancel
articles in as many newsreader programs that people care to send me
information on. If your favorite newsreader doesn't appear here, tell
me how to cancel in it, and I'll give you a paragraph of Net fame. :-)
NOTE #1: Most newsreaders allow you to cancel an article only while
the article has not yet expired on your news server, so that you can
call it up and read it again. If the article has already expired from
your server, you're probably out of luck.
NOTE #2: If you follow the instructions, but get an error message that
says something like "You can't cancel someone else's article", that
means that your newsreader was not installed properly. Complain to
your system administrator about it, if he/she installed your
newsreader. If *you* installed it, check your documentation and make
sure that your newsreader and news-server software agree on what your
e-mail address in the "From:" line should be.
(If you *were* trying to cancel someone else's article, please be
aware that that is usually considered a severe breach of
"netiquette.")
Gnus (under Emacs) -- Select the article and start reading it. Press
'C' (*upper-case*) to cancel it (function
`gnus-summary-cancel-article') [Thanks to Nat Makarevitch
(nat@nataa.frmug.fr.net), 8 Oct. 1995]
Netscape (Macintosh, Windows) -- Netscape versions prior to 2.0 can't
cancel articles. In version 2.0, use the "Cancel" command in the
"Edit" menu...
The article continues with methods for a variety of newsreaders. Check
to see if specifics are listed for the software you use.
And...
http://kb.indiana.edu/data/aewv.html?cust=11908
How do I cancel a Usenet news article I posted?
"The instructions below tell you how to cancel a Usenet news article
that you posted, depending on your newsreader. Some newsreaders cannot
cancel articles, while others did not have this capability in early
versions (e.g., NewsWatcher and Netscape Navigator prior to their 2.0
releases).
Note: Even if you cancel a message, this does not ensure that no one
will read your cancelled posting. Not all sites respect cancellation
messages, and there are propagation delays before your cancel notice
reaches all sites on the network. If you posted the message to
multiple newsgroups, you must cancel the message in each newsgroup.
Also be aware that you can cancel only your own postings, not those of
others.
Netscape or Mozilla: With the article that you want to cancel
selected, from the Edit menu, select either Clear or Cancel Message.
Outlook Express for Windows: With the article that you want to cancel
selected, from the Message menu, select Cancel Message..."
and more here as well...
I would say that your newsreader will have to be configured as it was
when you originally posted for it to recognize you as the author of
the messages you try to cancel.
At news.newusers.questions, a poster asks:
"Can I Remove Old Posts From Google?
I was rather astonished today when I used Google for the first time;
searching by my own email address showed me what looks like every
newsgroup post I have ever made! At least it showed posts going back
to 1999.
I had rather assumed that old posts would die away after a certain
time. Seeing all these confirms the usual advice about not posting
anything you wouldn't want your sainted mother to see.... However, I
do wonder if there is a way to expunge the old posts from, say, the
Google archives?"
The replies to this lead me to the Google FAQ you seem to be aware of:
http://groups.google.com/googlegroups/help.html
13. How can I remove articles from Google's archive?
Google will honor requests to remove messages that you have posted
yourself (known as nuking a post). You may even be able to do this
yourself using our Automatic Removal Tool. Please find the
circumstance below that applies to you and follow the instructions
there.
Messages posted from your current e-mail address
If the email address you used to post your message(s) is still active,
we recommend you use our Automatic Removal Tool. This is the fastest
and easiest way to have your posts removed. Note- that in order to use
this option, you must be able to send and receive email using the same
account from which your messages were originally posted to Usenet.
*************
Messages posted with an e-mail address that is no longer valid
If you would like to request the removal of posts made by you, but the
email address from which you posted is no longer valid, you may send
an e-mail to groups-support@google.com that contains the following
items:
your full name and contact information, including an email address
that can be verified;
the complete Google Groups URL (or message ID) for each individual
message you would like to have suppressed;
a statement that says "I swear under penalty of civil or criminal laws
that I am the person who posted each of the foregoing messages or am
authorized to request removal by the person who posted those
messages.";
and your signature (electronic).
******************
Since you posted with an incorrect email address, the automatic
removal will not work for you. Your best bet is to continue to contact
Google Groups with accurate information as they request while
attempting to cancel your posting via the methods listed above from
newsreaders. If your cancel requests are successful, the Google
archive *may* receive the messages and delete the postings from their
archive as well.
You also may wish to contact Google through means other than email as
follows:
Headquarters
Google
2400 Bayshore Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
phone: 650-330-0100
fax: 650-618-1499
Other informative links on cancelling messages:
http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/faqs/cancel.html
Cancel Messages: Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.killfile.org/faqs/cancel.html#I.G.
G. How do I cancel my own post?
I sincerely hope the information and links above help you to remedy
your situation. If a link above should fail to work or anything
require further explanation, please do post a Request for
Clarification and I will be pleased to assist further.
Regards,
-=clouseau=-
Google Answers Researcher |
