bug#9244: 24.0.50; Server put offline without any prompt

[Stefan Monnier]

> The prompting drove me crazy, because it would trigger in the middle of
> doing, well, anything, like batch-sending emails.
> But I could add an option to enable people to get the prompt if they
> want to?

I don't necessarily need the prompt, but the current behavior is much
too silent for my taste: I don't get any message about going offline,
and typically the only way I notice the problem is that "g" keeps
telling me there's no news, even though I know that the last refresh was
sufficiently long ago that at least some spam must have arrived in the
mean time.  And then I have to figure out how to bring it back online.

I'm a sufficiently sophisticated user that I can handle it, but my wife
would just tell me "this «Gnus» thingy of yours doesn't work".

The prompt may not always be welcome, but in practice I almost *never*
want to go offline.  So I'd much rather default to "retry" than to "go
offline".  And for my use, making this decision when Emacs prompted me
worked pretty well.


        Stefan