Il 06/12/2023 01:33, Subcommandante XDelta ha scritto:

> Use a free, quality, NNTP text newsgroup feed such as:
>
> https://www.i2pn2.org/
>
> https://www.eternal-september.org/

FWIW, I read comp.os.vms via Eternal September and it's FULL of spam. I don't
think it makes any difference, anyway I'm reading from Italy.

G.

On 2023-12-07, G. <gerry77@no.spam.mail.com> wrote:
> Il 06/12/2023 01:33, Subcommandante XDelta ha scritto:
>
>> Use a free, quality, NNTP text newsgroup feed such as:
>>
>> https://www.i2pn2.org/
>>
>> https://www.eternal-september.org/
>
> FWIW, I read comp.os.vms via Eternal September and it's FULL of spam. I don't
> think it makes any difference, anyway I'm reading from Italy.
>

Eternal September certainly does have some spam even after filtering, but
it is nowhere near as bad as an unfiltered feed. Compare comp.os.vms via
ES with the view from Google Groups to see just how much the ES filters
are removing.

Simon.

--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.

In article <uksfl5$194b9$1@dont-email.me>, G. <gerry77@no.spam.mail.com> wrote:
>Il 06/12/2023 01:33, Subcommandante XDelta ha scritto:
>
>> Use a free, quality, NNTP text newsgroup feed such as:
>>
>> https://www.i2pn2.org/
>>
>> https://www.eternal-september.org/
>
>FWIW, I read comp.os.vms via Eternal September and it's FULL of spam. I don't
>think it makes any difference, anyway I'm reading from Italy.
>
>G.

It should be getting better this week but if it doesn't, using NNTP allows
you to set up killfiles using your local newsreader. Cancelling anything
from Google is a reasonable temporary measure until the ES news guys get
their filtering dialed in for the current spam blast.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Simon Clubley <clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:
>On 2023-12-07, G. <gerry77@no.spam.mail.com> wrote:
>> Il 06/12/2023 01:33, Subcommandante XDelta ha scritto:
>>
>>> Use a free, quality, NNTP text newsgroup feed such as:
>>>
>>> https://www.i2pn2.org/
>>>
>>> https://www.eternal-september.org/
>>
>> FWIW, I read comp.os.vms via Eternal September and it's FULL of spam. I don't
>> think it makes any difference, anyway I'm reading from Italy.
>>
>
>Eternal September certainly does have some spam even after filtering, but
>it is nowhere near as bad as an unfiltered feed. Compare comp.os.vms via
>ES with the view from Google Groups to see just how much the ES filters
>are removing.

I honestly don't know what ES is like, but I will say that at our site here
they are removing between 2,000 and 5,000 spam messages a day from this group.
Which isn't as many as comp.protocols.time.ntp is getting but it's a lot
more than comp.arch. All of the spam seems to be coming from a a small
number of Google users, if not a single Google user. Right now, maybe ten
or twenty spam messages a day are making it through the filters but with
the new nocem configurations that should be improving.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article <ukslqf$6tb$1@panix2.panix.com>,
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
>Simon Clubley <clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:
>>On 2023-12-07, G. <gerry77@no.spam.mail.com> wrote:
>>> Il 06/12/2023 01:33, Subcommandante XDelta ha scritto:
>>>
>>>> Use a free, quality, NNTP text newsgroup feed such as:
>>>>
>>>> https://www.i2pn2.org/
>>>>
>>>> https://www.eternal-september.org/
>>>
>>> FWIW, I read comp.os.vms via Eternal September and it's FULL of spam. I don't
>>> think it makes any difference, anyway I'm reading from Italy.
>>>
>>
>>Eternal September certainly does have some spam even after filtering, but
>>it is nowhere near as bad as an unfiltered feed. Compare comp.os.vms via
>>ES with the view from Google Groups to see just how much the ES filters
>>are removing.
>
>I honestly don't know what ES is like, but I will say that at our site here
>they are removing between 2,000 and 5,000 spam messages a day from this group.
>Which isn't as many as comp.protocols.time.ntp is getting but it's a lot
>more than comp.arch. All of the spam seems to be coming from a a small
>number of Google users, if not a single Google user. Right now, maybe ten
>or twenty spam messages a day are making it through the filters but with
>the new nocem configurations that should be improving.

Scott, is this using Panix's NNTP server? I'm seeing
substantially more spam than that on this end coming through
news.panix.com.

- Dan C.

On 12/7/2023 8:00 AM, G. wrote:
> Il 06/12/2023 01:33, Subcommandante XDelta ha scritto:
>
>> Use a free, quality, NNTP text newsgroup feed such as:
>>
>> https://www.i2pn2.org/
>>
>> https://www.eternal-september.org/
>
> FWIW, I read comp.os.vms via Eternal September and it's FULL of spam. I don't
> think it makes any difference, anyway I'm reading from Italy.
>
> G.

My Thunderbird filter for comp.os.vms is "from contains gmail" and while not
perfect, mostly works for me.

--
David Froble Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc. E-Mail: davef@tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
170 Grimplin Road
Vanderbilt, PA 15486

On 12/7/2023 9:41 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> In article <uksfl5$194b9$1@dont-email.me>, G. <gerry77@no.spam.mail.com> wrote:
>> Il 06/12/2023 01:33, Subcommandante XDelta ha scritto:
>>
>>> Use a free, quality, NNTP text newsgroup feed such as:
>>>
>>> https://www.i2pn2.org/
>>>
>>> https://www.eternal-september.org/
>>
>> FWIW, I read comp.os.vms via Eternal September and it's FULL of spam. I don't
>> think it makes any difference, anyway I'm reading from Italy.
>>
>> G.
>
> It should be getting better this week but if it doesn't, using NNTP allows
> you to set up killfiles using your local newsreader. Cancelling anything
> from Google is a reasonable temporary measure until the ES news guys get
> their filtering dialed in for the current spam blast.
> --scott
>

I'm thinking a 2 lb dart arriving at each spammer at a relative velocity of say,
..05 C, might help with the problem.

--
David Froble Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc. E-Mail: davef@tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
170 Grimplin Road
Vanderbilt, PA 15486

On 07/12/2023 14:45, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Simon Clubley <clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:
>> On 2023-12-07, G. <gerry77@no.spam.mail.com> wrote:
>>> Il 06/12/2023 01:33, Subcommandante XDelta ha scritto:
>>>
>>>> Use a free, quality, NNTP text newsgroup feed such as:
>>>>
>>>> https://www.i2pn2.org/
>>>>
>>>> https://www.eternal-september.org/
>>>
>>> FWIW, I read comp.os.vms via Eternal September and it's FULL of spam. I don't
>>> think it makes any difference, anyway I'm reading from Italy.
>>>
>>
>> Eternal September certainly does have some spam even after filtering, but
>> it is nowhere near as bad as an unfiltered feed. Compare comp.os.vms via
>> ES with the view from Google Groups to see just how much the ES filters
>> are removing.
>
> I honestly don't know what ES is like, but I will say that at our site here
> they are removing between 2,000 and 5,000 spam messages a day from this group.
> Which isn't as many as comp.protocols.time.ntp is getting but it's a lot
> more than comp.arch. All of the spam seems to be coming from a a small
> number of Google users, if not a single Google user. Right now, maybe ten
> or twenty spam messages a day are making it through the filters but with
> the new nocem configurations that should be improving.
> --scott
>

They are now grumbling on comp.lang.ada

--
Chris

Dave Froble <davef@tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>I'm thinking a 2 lb dart arriving at each spammer at a relative velocity of say,
>.05 C, might help with the problem.

Oh, the current explosion seems to be from just one spammer. There are other
spam posts here and there but the runs of thousands at a time are from one
guy.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Dan Cross <cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net> wrote:
>
>Scott, is this using Panix's NNTP server? I'm seeing
>substantially more spam than that on this end coming through
>news.panix.com.

A lot of it comes in but most of it disappears off the server within an
hour or so since panix is accepting the nocem cancels. Panix does not
forward it to downstream sites but if you read news on a panix shell machine
you may see groups with thousands of messages but come to read them and find
only one or two are left. Sometimes you will see a block of spam.. stop
reading that group and come back in an hour and it will likely be gone.
--scott
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On 11/28/23 15:12, Ken Robinson wrote:
> Everyone else can ignore this post...
>
> I've put in a filter to kill any posts that come from Google groups, but
> I'm not sure if it's filtering out legitimate posts. I haven't seen a
> non-spam post since I put the filter in place.

Thank you. We just took the difficult but carefully-considered step
of adding google-groups.googlegroups.com to bad_paths in our cleanfeed
configuration on our news server this evening. It seems news admins all
over the place are doing that now, just over the past few weeks.

It's like the Eternal September transition all over again, only a
thousand times worse. Our NNTP feed went from taking about 4% of our
downstream bandwidth to about 70% over the past two months because of
Google's spam. Complaints fall on deaf ears.

Yes, legitimate posts are getting whacked. Smart people shouldn't be
using Google Groups for Usenet access. (or Gmail for email, either!)
It's time to face the reality: Google has turned evil.

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, President/Curator
Large Scale Systems Museum
New Kensington, PA

On 2023-12-07, Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
> Dave Froble <davef@tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>I'm thinking a 2 lb dart arriving at each spammer at a relative velocity of say,
>>.05 C, might help with the problem.
>
> Oh, the current explosion seems to be from just one spammer. There are other
> spam posts here and there but the runs of thousands at a time are from one
> guy.

Does anyone know the motivation of this person and why this person is
doing this ?

Has this person been wronged in some way ?

Simon.

--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.

On 2023-12-07, Chris Townley <news@cct-net.co.uk> wrote:
>
> They are now grumbling on comp.lang.ada
>

Noticed that, which surprised me because I had not seen any increase
using Eternal September so the ES filters are obviously working very
well for comp.lang.ada.

Simon.

--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.

In article <uktrd0$ofn$1@panix2.panix.com>,
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
>Dan Cross <cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net> wrote:
>>
>>Scott, is this using Panix's NNTP server? I'm seeing
>>substantially more spam than that on this end coming through
>>news.panix.com.
>
>A lot of it comes in but most of it disappears off the server within an
>hour or so since panix is accepting the nocem cancels. Panix does not
>forward it to downstream sites but if you read news on a panix shell machine
>you may see groups with thousands of messages but come to read them and find
>only one or two are left. Sometimes you will see a block of spam.. stop
>reading that group and come back in an hour and it will likely be gone.

Interesting. I see it now. I have:

/^message-id:.*googlegroups.*/h:j

In my trn News/KILL file, so I wasn't seeing (most) of the spam
anyway, but it's good to know it's being cleared off of the NNTP
server as well.

- Dan C.

Simon Clubley <clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:
>On 2023-12-07, Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
>> Dave Froble <davef@tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>>I'm thinking a 2 lb dart arriving at each spammer at a relative velocity of say,
>>>.05 C, might help with the problem.
>>
>> Oh, the current explosion seems to be from just one spammer. There are other
>> spam posts here and there but the runs of thousands at a time are from one
>> guy.
>
>Does anyone know the motivation of this person and why this person is
>doing this ?
>
>Has this person been wronged in some way ?

No, but it's clear that it's a revenge attempt at this point and not an
actual attempt to sell anything. It may not have started out that way.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On 12/8/23 08:08, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>> I'm thinking a 2 lb dart arriving at each spammer at a relative velocity of say,
>>> .05 C, might help with the problem.
>>
>> Oh, the current explosion seems to be from just one spammer. There are other
>> spam posts here and there but the runs of thousands at a time are from one
>> guy.
>
> Does anyone know the motivation of this person and why this person is
> doing this ?
>
> Has this person been wronged in some way ?

I'd certainly welcome the chance to wrong him.

-Dave

--
Dave McGuire, President/Curator
Large Scale Systems Museum
New Kensington, PA

On 12/7/2023 8:41 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> It should be getting better this week but if it doesn't, using NNTP allows
> you to set up killfiles using your local newsreader. Cancelling anything
> from Google is a reasonable temporary measure until the ES news guys get
> their filtering dialed in for the current spam blast.

Actually ES news guy. Ray Banana is the owner and only monkey in the show.

On 08/12/2023 23:46, Dave McGuire wrote:
> On 12/8/23 08:08, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>> I'm thinking a 2 lb dart arriving at each spammer at a relative
>>>> velocity of say,
>>>> .05 C, might help with the problem.
>>>
>>> Oh, the current explosion seems to be from just one spammer.  There
>>> are other
>>> spam posts here and there but the runs of thousands at a time are
>>> from one
>>> guy.
>>
>> Does anyone know the motivation of this person and why this person is
>> doing this ?
>>
>> Has this person been wronged in some way ?
>
>   I'd certainly welcome the chance to wrong him.
>
>              -Dave
>

Can anyone recommend a half decent free (or inexpensive) newsreader for
Windows?

I currently use Eternal September and Thunderbird, and find Thunderbird
flaky at best. With all the spam about I have to close and reopen it
multiple times to actually read messages that are there. Setting up
filters is fiddly as well. Most of the stuff around seems to be aimed at
binary downloads - I just want something for reading, and posting.

I tried Pan yesterday, no documentation, and I could only get it to work
partially

--
Chris

On 12/9/23 09:36, Chris Townley wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a half decent free (or inexpensive) newsreader for
> Windows?

I believe Steve Gibson w/ GRC has a fork of Gravity updated to deal with
some date issue. You might give that a try. -- I'm not a Windows
user, so I don't have any experience.

I am a long time Thunderbird user -- now mostly because I haven't found
an acceptable replacement.

Occasionally I need to right click on a newsgroup, go to the newsgroup's
properties, and click repair. That will cause Thunderbird to
re-download messages, or at least the last X number of messages. That
usually helps when working with a specific newsgroup gets too large.

Sadly, with all the spam emanating from Google Groups, newsgroups are
growing a lot quicker, even if things do get cleaned up after the fact.

--
Grant. . . .

On Sat, 9 Dec 2023 09:46:03 -0600, Grant Taylor
<gtaylor@tnetconsulting.net> wrote:

>On 12/9/23 09:36, Chris Townley wrote:
>> Can anyone recommend a half decent free (or inexpensive) newsreader for
>> Windows?
>
>I believe Steve Gibson w/ GRC has a fork of Gravity updated to deal with
>some date issue. You might give that a try. -- I'm not a Windows
>user, so I don't have any experience.
>
>I am a long time Thunderbird user -- now mostly because I haven't found
>an acceptable replacement.
>
>Occasionally I need to right click on a newsgroup, go to the newsgroup's
>properties, and click repair. That will cause Thunderbird to
>re-download messages, or at least the last X number of messages. That
>usually helps when working with a specific newsgroup gets too large.
>
>Sadly, with all the spam emanating from Google Groups, newsgroups are
>growing a lot quicker, even if things do get cleaned up after the fact.

Ah, excellent! - thank you for the Gravity tip. I use Forte Agent, for
Windows, and while still magnificent, it's showing its age, and hasn't
been actively developed and maintained for going on a decade.

I cannot say I an enamoured of the Thunderbird's Newsreader.

https://www.grc.com/discussions.htm

On 12/9/2023 10:36 AM, Chris Townley wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a half decent free (or inexpensive) newsreader for
> Windows?
>
> I currently use Eternal September and Thunderbird, and find Thunderbird
> flaky at best. With all the spam about I have to close and reopen it
> multiple times to actually read messages that are there. Setting up
> filters is fiddly as well. Most of the stuff around seems to be aimed at
> binary downloads - I just want something for reading, and posting.

I use ThunderBird on Windows and do not have a need to
close and reopen.

And filter seemed pretty simple to me: define filter
matching anything from GG but not from a few named
users and action=delete and run when getting new. It works.

Arne

Chris Townley <news@cct-net.co.uk> wrote in
news:ul21ic$28j03$1@dont-email.me:

> Can anyone recommend a half decent free (or inexpensive) newsreader
> for Windows?
>
> I currently use Eternal September and Thunderbird, and find
> Thunderbird flaky at best. With all the spam about I have to close and
> reopen it multiple times to actually read messages that are there.
> Setting up filters is fiddly as well. Most of the stuff around seems
> to be aimed at binary downloads - I just want something for reading,
> and posting.
>
> I tried Pan yesterday, no documentation, and I could only get it to
> work partially

I have been using XNews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xnews
It is pretty old and not supported but it has done what I need. It is
working in Windows 10 fine. I like that I can read by using single key
commands and not have to use the mouse at all. There is an addition I
found to allow it to properly display non-English characters. I can't
remember right now how that was done.

--
Clark G
* take away the em's to reply

On 10/12/2023 00:18, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 12/9/2023 10:36 AM, Chris Townley wrote:
>> Can anyone recommend a half decent free (or inexpensive) newsreader
>> for Windows?
>>
>> I currently use Eternal September and Thunderbird, and find
>> Thunderbird flaky at best. With all the spam about I have to close and
>> reopen it multiple times to actually read messages that are there.
>> Setting up filters is fiddly as well. Most of the stuff around seems
>> to be aimed at binary downloads - I just want something for reading,
>> and posting.
>
> I use ThunderBird on Windows and do not have a need to
> close and reopen.
>

The latest release seems to have fixed these problems but creates
others. I did resort going into the config editor and setting:-

mail.operate_on_msgs_in_collapsed_threads

to "false" but its now ok..

> And filter seemed pretty simple to me: define filter
> matching anything from GG but not from a few named
> users and action=delete and run when getting new. It works.
>

yes filters are fine

> Arne
>
>
>

Dave

On 10/12/2023 01:45, Clark G wrote:
> Chris Townley <news@cct-net.co.uk> wrote in
> news:ul21ic$28j03$1@dont-email.me:
>
>> Can anyone recommend a half decent free (or inexpensive) newsreader
>> for Windows?
>>
>> I currently use Eternal September and Thunderbird, and find
>> Thunderbird flaky at best. With all the spam about I have to close and
>> reopen it multiple times to actually read messages that are there.
>> Setting up filters is fiddly as well. Most of the stuff around seems
>> to be aimed at binary downloads - I just want something for reading,
>> and posting.

I found that if I refreshed the message list from the server it worked

>>
>> I tried Pan yesterday, no documentation, and I could only get it to
>> work partially
>
> I have been using XNews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xnews
> It is pretty old and not supported but it has done what I need. It is
> working in Windows 10 fine. I like that I can read by using single key
> commands and not have to use the mouse at all. There is an addition I
> found to allow it to properly display non-English characters. I can't
> remember right now how that was done.
>

On 10/12/2023 07:41, David Wade wrote:

> The latest release seems to have fixed these problems but creates
> others. I did resort going into the config editor and setting:-
>
> mail.operate_on_msgs_in_collapsed_threads
>
> to "false" but its now ok..
>

Where is this config editor? Couldn't find this in settings

--
Chris