WTF is up with the recent spam onslaught? I see it heavily on a
paleontology group and a recent spurt again here. Is it Google enabled?
Should a request go out to end Google Groups? There should be a bit of
effort in accessing usenet that makes throwaway spam accounts not worth the
cost involved.

Am 10.12.23 um 04:58 schrieb *Hemidactylus*:
> WTF is up with the recent spam onslaught? I see it heavily on a
> paleontology group and a recent spurt again here. Is it Google enabled?
> Should a request go out to end Google Groups? There should be a bit of
> effort in accessing usenet that makes throwaway spam accounts not worth the
> cost involved.

Does that surprise you? Really? With such a provider: X-Usenet-Provider:
http://www.giganews.com?

Use E-S or Solani. They are free but you need an account. Even better
and better maintained is Indivual.net of the Free University of Berlin
which costs €10/year.

http://news.individual.net

And you are very late to the discussion about this topic.

--
"Gutta cavat lapidem." (Ovid)

*Hemidactylus* <ecphoric@allspamis.invalid> wrote

> WTF is up with the recent spam onslaught? I see it heavily on a
> paleontology group and a recent spurt again here. Is it Google enabled?
> Should a request go out to end Google Groups? There should be a bit of
> effort in accessing usenet that makes throwaway spam accounts not worth the
> cost involved.

What happened when you contacted Google to complain about it?

1. Go to <https://groups.google.com/g/google-usenet/about>
2. Click the "Gear" icon at the top right of that web page
3. Select the option to "Send feedback to Google"
Box 1: "Tell us what prompted this feedback."
Box 2: "A screenshot will help us better understand your feedback."

Optionally, you can do the deluxe version of sending feedback to Google.
A. In tab 1, go to <https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android>
B. Take a screenshot & save it to a date-related name you can easily find.
C. In tab 2, go to <https://groups.google.com/g/google-usenet/about>
D. Click the "Gear" icon at the top right of that "about" web page
E. In the first box "Tell us what prompted this feedback."
tell Google the problem in a way that Google may care about
(i.e., the spam is making the dejagoogle search useless)

On 10.12.23 09:37, Wally J wrote:
> *Hemidactylus* <ecphoric@allspamis.invalid> wrote
>
>> WTF is up with the recent spam onslaught? I see it heavily on a
>> paleontology group and a recent spurt again here. Is it Google enabled?
>> Should a request go out to end Google Groups? There should be a bit of
>> effort in accessing usenet that makes throwaway spam accounts not worth the
>> cost involved.
>
> What happened when you contacted Google to complain about it?
>
> 1. Go to <https://groups.google.com/g/google-usenet/about>
> 2. Click the "Gear" icon at the top right of that web page
> 3. Select the option to "Send feedback to Google"
> Box 1: "Tell us what prompted this feedback."
> Box 2: "A screenshot will help us better understand your feedback."
>
> Optionally, you can do the deluxe version of sending feedback to Google.
> A. In tab 1, go to <https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android>
> B. Take a screenshot & save it to a date-related name you can easily find.
> C. In tab 2, go to <https://groups.google.com/g/google-usenet/about>
> D. Click the "Gear" icon at the top right of that "about" web page
> E. In the first box "Tell us what prompted this feedback."
> tell Google the problem in a way that Google may care about
> (i.e., the spam is making the dejagoogle search useless)

*ROTFLSTC*

--
"Gutta cavat lapidem." (Ovid)

Wally J <walterjones@invalid.nospam> wrote:
> *Hemidactylus* <ecphoric@allspamis.invalid> wrote
>
>> WTF is up with the recent spam onslaught? I see it heavily on a
>> paleontology group and a recent spurt again here. Is it Google enabled?
>> Should a request go out to end Google Groups? There should be a bit of
>> effort in accessing usenet that makes throwaway spam accounts not worth the
>> cost involved.
>
> What happened when you contacted Google to complain about it?
>
>

Have you ever gotten any response from Google when contacting them for
support? I certainly haven’t.

As for Google Groups spam, I have found that Eternal-September does a
decent job of filtering it out. However since I compile the monthly
newsgroup stats I also have an account on a new server which doesn’t filter
out anything and that’s the one I use for the stats.

A few weeks ago I had to provide the address of some legitimate Google
Groups users from another newsgroup who were being blocked by
Eternal-September. The administrator whitelisted them within a day. Try
that with Google support…

badgolferman <REMOVETHISbadgolferman@gmail.com> wrote

> Have you ever gotten any response from Google when contacting them for
> support? I certainly haven't.

Hi badgolferman,
I appreciate your adult request for my experience, since most people don't
have the capability nor desire to help everyone when contacting Google.

The problem hits people in many ways, most of whom don't realize this
because most posters to this child-like Apple newsgroup don't search before
they post a question - so they always start off from a point of ignorance.

Here are just some ways that the rampant 99.5% spam is causing for users:
A. The dejanews/dejagoogle search engine usefulness is almost nullified
B. Innocent news server admins have to deal with de-peering Google spam
C. All of us take a hit when our new server engines filter out 99.5% spam
etc.

Note that the child-like Apple iKooks have no comprehension of the global
problem set simply by them setting a filter to filter out google groups.

On this child-like Apple newsgroup, there's no hope to get a useful action
from iKooks like Alan Baker, Alan Browne, Jolly Roger, Joerg Lorenz, et al.

To answer your question, yes. I have been very successful with Google.
Three times, in fact.
All from either a phone or a web page.

1. Google changed the routing for a private road near where I live.
2. Google simplified the dejagoogle Usenet archive's URI for me
3. Google said they'd investigate Rod Speed's murder solicitation
(which he solicited on Usenet saying his GMail address is valid)

I explained those many times in the past, so above is merely summarized.

I appreciate that you ask if Google responds as there are two kinds of
people on this newsgroup - one of which is purposefully helpful people.

I put you and me in that category.
The iKooks are, by way of stark contrast, _never_ purposefully helpful.

They're the antithesis of me, which is why I despise their very existence.

They wouldn't stick out a finger to help anyone - and - in fact - they'd go
well out of their way to make life miserable for any innocent poster here.

In _that_ respect, I'm glad Lewis & Snit & Rod Speed & nospam are gone.

> As for Google Groups spam, I have found that Eternal-September does a
> decent job of filtering it out.

Eternal September has been one of the better news servers, it seems.

I authored what turned out to be a very informative discussion on the
peering newsgroup, which explain all about the peering issue you speak of.
*Who is peering all these spams ostensibly from Google Groups?*
<https://groups.google.com/g/news.admin.peering/c/AgrNUeZuAkw>

Ray Bananna (Wolfgang Weygan), who is the Eternal-September admin,
responded in that thread (and in many others that I'm aware of).

The bad news servers, apparently, are these three, in order (AFAIK):
1. Highwinds
2. Giganews
3. Individual

But I could be wrong on that as I don't know nntp like Frank Slootweg does.

> However since I compile the monthly
> newsgroup stats I also have an account on a new server which doesn't filter
> out anything and that's the one I use for the stats.

The spam is really terrible - about 99.5% spam on the Android newsgroup.
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android>

> A few weeks ago I had to provide the address of some legitimate Google
> Groups users from another newsgroup who were being blocked by
> Eternal-September. The administrator whitelisted them within a day. Try
> that with Google support...

These three news server admins are, in a word, complete assholes.
1. Highwinds
2. Giganews
3. Individual

However, the news server admins you're speaking about, are not.

In addition to Ray Banana (of eternal september), I too have been very
successful with working with the admins of many nntp servers, such as Paolo
Amaroso (who poisoned alt.home.repair due to the spams from Dean Hoffman,
for example) and from Steve Crook (of mixmin) and from Alex de Jood (of
dizum) and from Ivo Gandolfo (of paganini) and from Roman Racine (albasani)
and from Benjamin Gufler (at Solani) and from Jesse Rehmer (blueworld) and
from Steen Jensen (sunsite) and from Alexander Samoylyk (eponymous), etc.
(all those are offhand AFAIR).

But as you know, Google is different. I tried calling them just this week.
<https://i.postimg.cc/d388rqkj/google02.jpg> (Google at the 3-hour point)

In summary, you can ask for advice on what to do with these newsgroups:
<https://groups.google.com/g/news.admin.peering/>
<https://groups.google.com/g/news.software.nntp>
<https://groups.google.com/g/news.admin.net-abuse.usenet>

Given on this newsgroup the purposefully unhelpful iKooks can't be relied
upon to do anything for anyone, the few remaining adults could do this:
<https://groups.google.com/g/news.admin.peering/c/xxniDVj3ArI/>
--
Getting something done for everyone requires a heart for useful purposes.

Wally J <walterjones@invalid.nospam> wrote

> Given on this newsgroup the purposefully unhelpful iKooks can't be relied
> upon to do anything for anyone, the few remaining adults could do this:
> <https://groups.google.com/g/news.admin.peering/c/xxniDVj3ArI/>

The good news is the admin of individual.net responded positively.
<https://groups.google.com/g/news.admin.peering/c/AgrNUeZuAkw/m/f9PSZkv4AAAJ>

So the only bad news, so far, is that we haven't heard from the news server
admins at Highwinds and Giganews (who are apparently peering the spams).

Still, everyone who is an adult who cares about Usenet should complain to
Google, which takes less time than it takes to compose this request.
<https://groups.google.com/g/google-usenet/about>
Press on the gear icon & then "Send feedback to Google"

Please. You can reference this thread in your complaint if you like.
<https://groups.google.com/g/news.admin.peering/c/AgrNUeZuAkw>

*Hemidactylus* <ecphoric@allspamis.invalid> wrote:
> WTF is up with the recent spam onslaught? I see it heavily on a
> paleontology group and a recent spurt again here. Is it Google enabled?
> Should a request go out to end Google Groups? There should be a bit of
> effort in accessing usenet that makes throwaway spam accounts not worth the
> cost involved.
>
Ummmm…were they listening?