Preamble :
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 of the most popular ways to create "noise" in a newsgroup is to crosspost. So we will start with that.
1 ) What is crossposting ?
2 ) How do I avoid reading crossposts ?
3 ) What if I want to filter out posts to a specific newsgroup only ?
4 ) What if I want to filter out posts to multiple newsgroups only ?
5 ) How do I avoid reading posts by particular posters (authors) ?
6 ) How do I "black list" certain posters ?
7 ) What if someone I have "black listed" pretends to be someone else in order to avoid my filtering ?
8 ) How do I "white list" certain posters ?
9 ) How does one work out who not to killfile (mark post as "read") ? Who to add to my white list ?
10 ) What if I want to see "newbie", and "occasional", posters immediately ?
11 ) How do I "black list" certain subjects ?
12 ) Wouldn't going through a list of maybe 50 topics a day be pretty tiresome ?
13 ) Is there any way to only see this "shorter" list each day. To avoid seeing threads that I have already killfiled ?
14 ) Is there any way to make this "shorter" list each day even shorter ?
15 ) But what if a poster purposely changes the subject header in a thread to avoid subject filtering ?
16 ) How do I "black list" posters from certain domains eg. Google, x-privat.Org, gabrix.Ath.Cx, etc ?
17 ) How does one work out which google posters not to killfile (mark post as "read") ? Who to add to my google exemptions list ?
18 ) What if I want to see "newbie", and "occasional", google posters immediately ?
19 ) How do I "black list" by thread ?
20 ) This sounds tedious. Is there any way to make it quick/easy ?
21 ) But what if a thread starts okay and then digresses into something I am not interested in ?
22 ) How do I filter news posts by sub-thread ?
23 ) What about forgeries ? Wouldn't they make the above more difficult ?
24 ) Are there other web pages that discuss filtering of newsgroup messages ?
25 ) I am not interested in reading non-English newsgroup messages. Is there any way to killfile them ?
26 ) That is too much work. Isn't there any other way for me to read about freeware without all the "noise" ?
27 ) So how do I find/subscribe to a "moderated" newsgroup, mailing list or web forum that discusses freeware ?
1 ) WHAT
IS CROSSPOSTING ?
Posting a message to more than one newsgroup. In A.C.F. this would be other newsgroups in addition to A.C.F. If one looks at the Newsgroups: line when reading, or replying to, newsgroups one should see multiple newsgroups listed. Separated by commas eg. Newsgroups: alt.comp.freeware,alt.tv.american-idol,rec.aviation.student
2 ) HOW DO I AVOID READING CROSSPOSTS. ?
In eg. Agent one goes Ctrl + K. Then enters the info newsgroups: {,} This results in every crosspost being "Marked Read".
3 ) WHAT IF I WANT TO FILTER OUT POSTS TO A SPECIFIC NEWSGROUP ONLY ?
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".
4 ) WHAT IF I WANT TO FILTER OUT POSTS TO MULTIPLE NEWSGROUPS ONLY ?
Then add the extra newsgroups. For example newsgroups: {rec.music.beatles|alt.2600} This results in every crosspost that includes either, or both, newsgroups being "Marked Read".
5 ) HOW DO I AVOID READING POSTS BY PARTICULAR POSTERS (AUTHORS) ?
You "Black List" them.
6 ) HOW DO I "BLACK LIST" CERTAIN POSTERS ?
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...
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 as outlined in the previous paragraph.
7 ) 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.
8 ) HOW DO I "WHITE LIST" CERTAIN POSTERS ?
(A) 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".
(B) 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.
9 ) 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.
10 ) 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.
11 ) HOW DO I "BLACK LIST" CERTAIN SUBJECTS ?
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"
12 ) 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.)
13 ) 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.
14 ) 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.
15 ) BUT WHAT IF A POSTER PURPOSELY CHANGES THE SUBJECT HEADER IN A THREAD TO AVOID SUBJECT FILTERING ?
Then you filter by thread.
16 ) HOW DO I "BLACK LIST" POSTERS FROM CERTAIN DOMAINS EG. GOOGLE, X-PRIVAT.ORG, GABRIX.ATH.CX, ETC ?
Unless you are comfortable with complex filters (the above would result in a combination of three filters) then do each domain in turn, eg.
(A) 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.
(B) 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.
17 ) 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.
18 ) 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.
19 ) HOW DO I "BLACK LIST" BY THREAD ?
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.
20 ) 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.
21 ) BUT WHAT IF A THREAD STARTS OKAY AND THEN DIGRESSES INTO SOMETHING I AM NOT INTERESTED IN ?
Then you filter by sub - thread.
22 ) HOW DO I FILTER NEWS POSTS BY SUB-THREAD ?
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.
23 ) WHAT ABOUT FORGERIES ? WOULDN'T THEY MAKE THE ABOVE MORE DIFFICULT ?
They can, but sometimes filtering out (ignoring) postings by forgers can be fairly straightforward.
A simple case might be...
(A) Suppose you know that nobody except the forger posts through eg. news.x-privat.org. If that were the case then a filter such as
Message-ID: {@news.x-privat.org>}
might be all you need to avoid reading their posts.
A more common case might be...
(B) Suppose someone's name was "Ron" and they posted with the Agent newsreader. If you didn't want to see the "fake" Ron's posts you could consider a filter such as...
Author: {ron@isp.com} and not Message-ID: {@4ax.com}
This would filter out posts by a fake Ron who was using the real Ron's name correctly..
(C) Suppose someone's name was "Jon" and they posted through a particular ISP. You could consider a filter such as...
Author: {jon@isp.com} and not Message-ID: {@posted.ccountrynet}
This would filter out
posts by a fake Jon who was using the real Jon's name correctly..
(D) A more complex case might be...
Author: {ron@isp.com} and not Message-ID: {@4ax.com} or Message-ID:{@news.x-privat.org>}
The point that I am making here is that multiple header fields/methods can be added together to make a single filter.
24 ) ARE THERE ANY OTHER WEB PAGES THAT DISCUSS FILTERING OF NEWSGROUP MESSAGES ?
Yes, using nfilter
(now called NewsProxy) here.
Really, filtering newsgroup
posts is as simple, or as complex, as you want to make it. If you want
help in this area then there are people in the newsgroup who should be
able to help you. Keep in mind that you don't need to know who a forger
is to filter them. Also, the more forgers/forgeries there are the more
people filter their messages. So they spend more and more time talking
to an ever decreasing audience.
25 ) I AM NOT INTERESTED IN READING NON-ENGLISH NEWSGROUP MESSAGES. IS THERE ANY WAY TO KILLFILE THEM ?
Yes, but how effective your filtering is depends on which newsreader you are using and what method you use.
Newsgroup posts often have a line that reads something like..
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; etc
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-2" etc
So, one could filter on what is on that line, or what isn't. Suppose for example you wanted to filter out Arabic (ISO 8859-6), Greek (ISO 8859-7) and Hebrew (ISO 8859-8) character sets and/or use the MS Windows character sets Greek (Windows-1253), Turkish (Windows-1254) and Hebrew (Windows-1255). Your filter might look something like..
Not Content-Type: {(ISO-8859-[6-8]|windows-125[3-5])}
There are however problems with this approach.
(A) There are far more character sets than the three mentioned here. Dozens in fact. Including Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese etc. Filtering them all out can result in a pretty complex filter. Which increases the possibility of making errors.
(B) Not all newsgroup posts have the Content-Type: header.
(C) Not all newsreaders can filter that header.
(D) Someone using a non English character set may decide to make a usenet post using English.
If you can filter on that header then a better approach may be to only filter on the main language(s) that give you the most problems.
Fortunately there is another method that can be more effective. Look in the subject line of a newsgroup post. If it has any non-English characters then chances are you will not want to read it. Here is the filter..
Not Subject: {¿|À|Á|Â|Ã|Ä|Å|Æ|Ç|È|É|Ê|Ë|Ì|Í|Î|Ï|Ð|Ñ|Ò|Ó|Ô|Õ|Ö|×|Ø|Ù|Ú|Û|Ü|Ý|Þ|ß|à|á|â|ã|ä|å|æ|ç|è|é|ê|ë|ì|í|î|ï|ð|ñ|ò|ó|ô|õ|ö|÷|ø|ù|ú|û|ü|ý|þ|ÿ}
26 ) THE ABOVE IS TOO MUCH WORK. ISN'T THERE ANY OTHER WAY FOR ME TO READ ABOUT FREEWARE WITHOUT ALL THE "NOISE" ?
One often finds more "on topic" discussion in a "moderated" newsgroup, emailing list or web forum.
27 ) SO HOW DO I FIND/SUBSCRIBE TO A "MODERATED" NEWSGROUP, MAILING LIST OR WEB FORUM THAT DISCUSSES FREEWARE ?
These types of forums either currently exist, are proposed, or are in "beta" testing. If you are a long term ACF poster, haven't been involved in flame threads and are willing to be a "beta" tester then you should consider contacting me for more details.
John Fitzsimons.
This article is provided as is without any express or implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this article, the author assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
Copyright (c) 2010 by John Fitzsimons, all rights reserved. This FAQ may be posted to any USENET newsgroup, on-line service, or BBS as long as it is posted in its entirety (without change) and includes this copyright statement.