Rich Grise <richardgrise@yahoo.com> says...

>But I didn't _want_ to post to alt.test, because a.o.l.s is the group
>I wanted to post to, and I wasn't sure if google would post to an
>alt group.


I would have tried posting to alt.test (thus gaining knowledge about
whether google would post to an alt group) and then posted a normal
reply to something someone posted, thus testing my ability to post
to a.o.l.s without anyone even knowing that I was testing as well
as replying.