People visiting newsgroups in general, or the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup in particular, are often unpleasantly surprised by the amount of "noise". This may take many forms but in essence they all add up to discussion that has nothing to do with the topic of the newsgroup. In this case discussion about freeware programs/utilities. If you find that reading "off topic" newsgroup postings is taking up too much of your time, and/or detracting too much from the enjoyment of reading newsgroups, then you can take action(s) to help counter this/these situations. These actions can be taken individually or in combination with each other. The effectiveness varies depending on which you take and the newsgroup involved.
A number of freeware, and non freeware, newsreaders enable people to skip posts that aren't relevant to the topic of a newsgroup. The following (Payware) Agent version 5 examples can be modified to work in various freeware newsreaders. Which is best depends on the person doing the reading. It should be kept in mind however that one can combine a number of these approaches. In order to be more effective.
One approach that people can take is to "White List" posters.
So how does one "White List" ?
(1) Mark every post in the newsgroup as read.
In eg. Agent one goes Ctrl + K. Then enters
the info Author: {} This
results in every post being "Marked Read".
(2) Add the names of the posters that you DO want to read.
If three posters, the above might now be something like..
Author: {} and not Author: (myself <me@isp.com> or herself <her@isp.com> or himself <him@isp.com> )
If this seems a bit long then it can be shortened to eg.
not Author: (me@isp.com|her@isp.com|him@isp.com)
The three people here
are now White Listed.
All news posts from these people will be shown as unread posts after you
download them.
(3) How does one work out who NOT to killfile (Mark post as "read") ? Who to add to my White List ?
(A) Sort the news posts by author.
(B) Decide what "threshold" to use when "allowing" posts to download, and to be marked as "Unread". For example you might prefer not to read posts by people who make posts that are unrelated to the topic of freeware. Irrespective of how many "good" posts they make.
(C) Start reading the posts in author order. You should quickly work out who does/doesn't talk about freeware. Those who are okay you add to your White List. The rest you ignore. It won't take you long to work out the posters who are constructive contributors and those who just contribute noise.
Once you have done the above you can go back to your preferred way of reading posts, eg. in thread order. Your newsgroup reading should be considerably faster and more pleasant.
Do the above on occasion
eg. once every two weeks, so you can add any new people who should be added
to your White List that you missed previously. Due to being only occasional
posters, or complete newbies. If that period is too long then reduce it.
(4) What if I want to see "newbie", and "occasional", posters immediately ?
An alternative approach to seeing newbies and/or occasional posters more quickly is to only view the first post in new threads (as well as your White List). To do that change the above example to eg.
not Author: (me@isp.com|her@isp.com|him@isp.com) and Subject: {Re:}
It may take a while initially to create your "White List". Once created though it should only take a few minutes a day to update. Especially if used with other killfiling methods.
Another approach that people can take is to "Black List" posters from certain domains eg. Google.
So how does one "Black List" people from Google ?
(1) Mark every Google post in the newsgroup as read.
In eg. Agent one goes Ctrl + K. Then enters
the info Message-ID: <googlegroups.com> This
results in every Google post being "Marked Read". If you are using a different
newsreader you might prefer to use something like the X-Complaints-To:
groups-abuse@google.com or the Complaints-To:
groups-abuse@google.com header lines.
(2) Add the names of the posters that you DO want to read.
If three posters, the above might now be something like..
Message-ID: <googlegroups.com> and not Author: (myself <me@isp.com> or herself <her@isp.com> or himself <him@isp.com> )
If this seems a bit long then it can be shortened to eg.
Message-ID: <googlegroups.com> and not Author: (me@isp.com|her@isp.com|him@isp.com)
All Google posters,
except for these three, will have their posts "Marked Read" after you download
them.
(3) How does one work out which Google posters NOT to killfile (Mark post as "read") ? Who to add to my Google Exemptions List ?
(A) Find all the posts by Google posters only. In Agent CTRL + G (Find Global) and then enter criteria as already mentioned eg. Message-ID: <googlegroups.com> Then "View All".
(B) Sort the news posts by author.
(C) Decide what "threshold" to use when "allowing" posts to download, and to be marked as "Unread". For example you might prefer not to read posts by people who make posts that are unrelated to the topic of freeware. Irrespective of how many "good" posts they make.
(D) Start reading the posts in author order. You should quickly work out who does/doesn't talk about freeware. Those who are okay you add to your Google Exemptions List. The rest you ignore. It won't take you long to work out the posters who are constructive contributors and those who just contribute noise.
Once you have done the above you can go back to your preferred way of reading posts, eg. in thread order. Your newsgroup reading should be considerably faster and more pleasant.
Do the above on occasion
eg. once every two weeks, so you can add any new people who should be added
to your Google Exemptions List that you missed previously. Due to being
only occasional posters, or complete newbies. If that period is too long
then reduce it.
(4) What if I want to see "newbie", and "occasional", Google posters immediately ?
An alternative approach to seeing newbies and/or occasional posters more quickly is to only view the first post in new threads (as well as your Google Exemptions List). To do that change the above example to eg.
Message-ID: <googlegroups.com> and not Author: (me@isp.com|her@isp.com|him@isp.com) and Subject: {Re:}
It may take a while initially to create your Black List (by Domain) and/or your "Google Exemptions List". Once created though they should only take a few minutes a day to update. Especially if used with other killfiling methods.
Another approach that people can take is to "Black List" certain posters (authors).
So how does one "Black List" certain posters ?
(1) Find/killfile posters who you don't want to read future posts from.
(A) Find a post by that/those author(s). Select Ctrl + K. Then select "Paste Author". Once you "Okay" out of that window future posts by that poster will be "Marked Read"
and/or...
(B) Sort the news posts by author. Work out which authors you don't want to read any more. Select one of their posts and do (A).
(2) What if someone I have Black Listed pretends to be someone else in order to avoid my filtering ?
Then you Black List the new name that he/she is using. It is very quick/easy to do this. Only a matter of seconds.
Another approach that people can take is to "Black List" posts on certain (subjects).
So how does one "Black List" certain subjects ?
(1) Find/killfile subjects that you don't want to read future posts about.
(A) Sort the newsgroup posts by subject.
(B) Select Navigate - Collapse all items. You have now created a very small list compared to the total number of posts. For example, 400 posts may collapse to be only 50 different subjects (threads).
(C) Move down your list of topics. When you find a thread that doesn't interest you then select Ctrl + K. Then select "Paste Subject". Once you "Okay" out of that window future posts with that subject will be "Marked Read"
(2) Wouldn't going through a list of maybe 50 topics a day be pretty tiresome ?
No, because after the first time subsequent lists will be shorter. This is due to the fact that some threads are added to for days, or sometimes weeks, or more. So if a thread lasts 50 days, and you Black Listed it on "day one", then you don't need to categorise it again. Certainly not another 49 times ! (Also, you may have avoided reading hundreds of posts that don't interest you.)
(3) Is there any way to only see this "shorter" list each day. To avoid seeing threads that I have already killfiled ?
Yes, because you have marked the threads that you previously didn't want to read as "read". You can do a "view" of news posts that excludes "read" items. Your "read" threads shouldn't appear.
(4) Is there any way to make this "shorter" list each day even shorter ?
Yes, by creating a "view" that reflects your downloading habits. For example suppose you download news posts once a day. Create a "view" that only shows unread news posts for the last day. Then check the "new" threads in order to categorise them. "Old" threads will have been actioned previously.
(4) But what if a poster purposely changes the subject header in a thread to avoid subject filtering ?
Then you filter by thread.
So how does one filter news posts by thread ?
(1) Find/killfile threads that you don't want to read future posts from.
(A) Sort the newsgroup posts by thread.
(B) Go through the threads one by one. You can usually tell from the first post whether a thread will interest you. When it doesn't go Message - Ignore thread OR press the "I" key. If you are part way down a thread (rather than at the first post) then press the "I" AND the "shift" keys together.
(2) This sounds tedious. Is there any way to make it quick/easy ?
Yes, by creating a filter/view that reflects your downloading habits. For example suppose you download news posts once a day. Create a filter to only show "new" threads eg. "Mark Read" Subject: {Re:} . Then a "view" that only shows news posts for the last day.
Once done disable your "new threads" filter, mark all the posts unread, and return to your normal view.
(3) But what if a thread starts okay and then digresses into something I am not interested in ?
Then you filter by sub - thread.
So how does one filter news posts by sub - thread ?
(1) Find/killfile sub - threads that you don't want to read future posts from.
(A) Sort the newsgroup posts by thread.
(B) Read the unread posts in the threads one by one. As soon as you come across a post that is clearly digressing from subject matter that interests you go Message - Ignore thread OR press the "I" key. Posts following on from the digression post will be ignored while the rest of the thread will be left un-touched.
In summary. The "I" key will ignore the whole thread if applied to the first post. The "I" key will ignore the whole sub - thread if applied to the first post that you don't want to see that isn't the first.
What about crossposting ? How does one filter news posts by newsgroups ?
(1) Decide whether you want to read posts that are made to other newsgroups as well. If you don't.
(A) In eg. Agent one goes Ctrl + K. Then enters the info newsgroups: {,} This results in every crosspost being "Marked Read".
(2) What if I want to filter out posts to a specific newsgroup ?
(B) In eg. Agent one goes Ctrl + K. Then enters the info of the newsgroup. For example newsgroups: {rec.music.beatles} This results in every crosspost that includes that newsgroup being "Marked Read".