Hi,

I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups. But they won't do anything
about all the spam here.

I mostly just watch this one.

Is everyone here still getting all this junk?

If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.

-pw

On Mon, 19 Feb 2024 20:55:43 -0700, PW
<iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:

>Is everyone here still getting all this junk?

Yes I am getting the spam but Agent puts it all together at least so I
can delete it very quickly.

On Mon, 19 Feb 2024 20:55:43 -0700, PW
<iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups. But they won't do anything
>about all the spam here.
>
>I mostly just watch this one.
>
>Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
>
>If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.
>

Today I learned that Forte also provides Usenet access. Well, it makes
sense. Although based on the headers, maybe they route through
EasyNews?

(You should be able to to use Forte Agent regardless of your NNTP
provider... unless Forte turned evil and made the software
subscription based too. But I don't see any evidence of that on their
website. Just change the host name in settings to point to the new
news-server. Personally, I like spinning up a new .rc file when I do
that in case of numbering differences, but it may not be necessary).

As for Usenet providers, they're getting thin on the ground... and too
many of them are focused on offering binaries. How well they do with
spam, I don't know; I can't imagine they care very much... especially
the binary-focused ones. From what I can tell, they're mostly
back-ends for NZB search engines so the spam never gets seen

Still, many of the services offer free trials so you could just sign
up and see for yourself. Eweka https://www.eweka.nl/en , TweakNews
https://www.tweaknews.eu/ , Newshost https://www.newshosting.com/ and
Usenet.Farm https://www.newshosting.com/ all let you try for free.
Create an account, configure a free NNTP client with their newsgroup
settings, and refresh daily to see how they compare to one another
regarding spam.

There's also good ol' Eternal September
https://www.eternal-september.org/ which apparently /is/ trying to
fight against the spam (not surprisingly, since its text-oriented) but
given its limited resources its apparently having a bit of an issue
keeping up.

In article <7i88tilc99rsccpc97gdf4p3mnhufaqoe0@4ax.com>,
iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com says...
>
> Hi,
>
> I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups. But they won't do anything
> about all the spam here.
>
> I mostly just watch this one.
>
> Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
>
> If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.

I'm using AstraWeb (prepaid for something like 10GB many years ago which
is a lot of text newsgroups) and I get the spam.

I've taken to just filtering out everything coming from Google Groups
which does an excellent job of filtering out *all* of the spam, but
unfortunately it also filters out the people who are still using Google
Groups too.

But Google Groups is going away in a day or two which should see
virtually all of the spam disappear too.

On 2/20/2024 5:10 PM, David Goodwin wrote:
> In article <7i88tilc99rsccpc97gdf4p3mnhufaqoe0@4ax.com>,
> iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com says...
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups. But they won't do anything
>> about all the spam here.
>>
>> I mostly just watch this one.
>>
>> Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
>>
>> If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.
>
> I'm using AstraWeb (prepaid for something like 10GB many years ago which
> is a lot of text newsgroups) and I get the spam.
>
> I've taken to just filtering out everything coming from Google Groups
> which does an excellent job of filtering out *all* of the spam, but
> unfortunately it also filters out the people who are still using Google
> Groups too.
>
> But Google Groups is going away in a day or two which should see
> virtually all of the spam disappear too.

I use Eternal September as my Usenet provider. They do a lot of work to
filter out spam.

I use Thunderbird as my Usenet reader. The spam filter/killfile
function on it is easy to use and I have used it copiously.

Between the two I see very, very little spam anymore.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On 2/21/2024 5:13 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 2/20/2024 5:10 PM, David Goodwin wrote:
>> In article <7i88tilc99rsccpc97gdf4p3mnhufaqoe0@4ax.com>,
>> iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com says...
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups.  But they won't do anything
>>> about all the spam here.
>>>
>>> I mostly just watch this one.
>>>
>>> Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
>>>
>>> If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.
>>
>> I'm using AstraWeb (prepaid for something like 10GB many years ago which
>> is a lot of text newsgroups) and I get the spam.
>>
>> I've taken to just filtering out everything coming from Google Groups
>> which does an excellent job of filtering out *all* of the spam, but
>> unfortunately it also filters out the people who are still using Google
>> Groups too.
>>
>> But Google Groups is going away in a day or two which should see
>> virtually all of the spam disappear too.
>
> I use Eternal September as my Usenet provider.  They do a lot of work to
> filter out spam.
>
> I use Thunderbird as my Usenet reader.  The spam filter/killfile
> function on it is easy to use and I have used it copiously.
>
> Between the two I see very, very little spam anymore.
>

I used to use Leafnode connecting to Eternal September to filter out
stuff. It was the easiest way for me to use different newsreaders
without getting spam (well, after filtering out Google Groups, that
really cut down on spam and only affected one or two posters)

On 2/20/24 22:13, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 2/20/2024 5:10 PM, David Goodwin wrote:
>> In article <7i88tilc99rsccpc97gdf4p3mnhufaqoe0@4ax.com>,
>> iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com says...
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups.  But they won't do anything
>>> about all the spam here.
>>>
>>> I mostly just watch this one.
>>>
>>> Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
>>>
>>> If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.
>>
>> I'm using AstraWeb (prepaid for something like 10GB many years ago which
>> is a lot of text newsgroups) and I get the spam.
>>
>> I've taken to just filtering out everything coming from Google Groups
>> which does an excellent job of filtering out *all* of the spam, but
>> unfortunately it also filters out the people who are still using Google
>> Groups too.
>>
>> But Google Groups is going away in a day or two which should see
>> virtually all of the spam disappear too.
>
> I use Eternal September as my Usenet provider.  They do a lot of work to
> filter out spam.
>
> I use Thunderbird as my Usenet reader.  The spam filter/killfile
> function on it is easy to use and I have used it copiously.
>
> Between the two I see very, very little spam anymore.

Ray Banana is very good at spam busting
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

In article <ur4v8j$35tu5$3@dont-email.me>, gmkeros@gmail.com says...
>
> On 2/21/2024 5:13 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> > On 2/20/2024 5:10 PM, David Goodwin wrote:
> >> In article <7i88tilc99rsccpc97gdf4p3mnhufaqoe0@4ax.com>,
> >> iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com says...
> >>>
> >>> Hi,
> >>>
> >>> I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups.  But they won't do anything
> >>> about all the spam here.
> >>>
> >>> I mostly just watch this one.
> >>>
> >>> Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
> >>>
> >>> If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.
> >>
> >> I'm using AstraWeb (prepaid for something like 10GB many years ago which
> >> is a lot of text newsgroups) and I get the spam.
> >>
> >> I've taken to just filtering out everything coming from Google Groups
> >> which does an excellent job of filtering out *all* of the spam, but
> >> unfortunately it also filters out the people who are still using Google
> >> Groups too.
> >>
> >> But Google Groups is going away in a day or two which should see
> >> virtually all of the spam disappear too.
> >
> > I use Eternal September as my Usenet provider.  They do a lot of work to
> > filter out spam.
> >
> > I use Thunderbird as my Usenet reader.  The spam filter/killfile
> > function on it is easy to use and I have used it copiously.
> >
> > Between the two I see very, very little spam anymore.
> >
>
>
> I used to use Leafnode connecting to Eternal September to filter out
> stuff. It was the easiest way for me to use different newsreaders
> without getting spam (well, after filtering out Google Groups, that
> really cut down on spam and only affected one or two posters)

Yeah, I'm currently connecting through leafnode though more because it
makes archiving newsgroups possible should I want to - I've not gone as
far as setting up any filtering there, though if Google Groups wasn't
ending soon I probably would.

For a newsreader I'm using MicroPlanet Gravity right now - its not
perfect (or maintained), but I like it better than ThunderBird. I've
occasionally used WinVN and ancient versions of Forte FreeAgent on
vintage machines as well.

On 21/02/2024 04:13, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 2/20/2024 5:10 PM, David Goodwin wrote:
>> In article <7i88tilc99rsccpc97gdf4p3mnhufaqoe0@4ax.com>,
>> iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com says...
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups.  But they won't do anything
>>> about all the spam here.
>>>
>>> I mostly just watch this one.
>>>
>>> Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
>>>
>>> If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.
>>
>> I'm using AstraWeb (prepaid for something like 10GB many years ago which
>> is a lot of text newsgroups) and I get the spam.
>>
>> I've taken to just filtering out everything coming from Google Groups
>> which does an excellent job of filtering out *all* of the spam, but
>> unfortunately it also filters out the people who are still using Google
>> Groups too.
>>
>> But Google Groups is going away in a day or two which should see
>> virtually all of the spam disappear too.
>
> I use Eternal September as my Usenet provider.  They do a lot of work to
> filter out spam.
>
> I use Thunderbird as my Usenet reader.  The spam filter/killfile
> function on it is easy to use and I have used it copiously.
>
> Between the two I see very, very little spam anymore.
>

I use ES as well and they seem pretty good on the spam front. It can
play a bit funny with Thunderbird sometimes but I'm not sure where the
real issue lies.

On 2/22/24 04:03, JAB wrote:
> On 21/02/2024 04:13, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>> On 2/20/2024 5:10 PM, David Goodwin wrote:
>>> In article <7i88tilc99rsccpc97gdf4p3mnhufaqoe0@4ax.com>,
>>> iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com says...
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups.  But they won't do anything
>>>> about all the spam here.
>>>>
>>>> I mostly just watch this one.
>>>>
>>>> Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
>>>>
>>>> If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.
>>>
>>> I'm using AstraWeb (prepaid for something like 10GB many years ago which
>>> is a lot of text newsgroups) and I get the spam.
>>>
>>> I've taken to just filtering out everything coming from Google Groups
>>> which does an excellent job of filtering out *all* of the spam, but
>>> unfortunately it also filters out the people who are still using Google
>>> Groups too.
>>>
>>> But Google Groups is going away in a day or two which should see
>>> virtually all of the spam disappear too.
>>
>> I use Eternal September as my Usenet provider.  They do a lot of work
>> to filter out spam.
>>
>> I use Thunderbird as my Usenet reader.  The spam filter/killfile
>> function on it is easy to use and I have used it copiously.
>>
>> Between the two I see very, very little spam anymore.
>>
>
> I use ES as well and they seem pretty good on the spam front. It can
> play a bit funny with Thunderbird sometimes but I'm not sure where the
> real issue lies.

I haven't had a double-post issue in a while.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 2/22/2024 2:03 AM, JAB wrote:
> On 21/02/2024 04:13, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>> On 2/20/2024 5:10 PM, David Goodwin wrote:
>>> In article <7i88tilc99rsccpc97gdf4p3mnhufaqoe0@4ax.com>,
>>> iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com says...
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups.  But they won't do anything
>>>> about all the spam here.
>>>>
>>>> I mostly just watch this one.
>>>>
>>>> Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
>>>>
>>>> If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.
>>>
>>> I'm using AstraWeb (prepaid for something like 10GB many years ago which
>>> is a lot of text newsgroups) and I get the spam.
>>>
>>> I've taken to just filtering out everything coming from Google Groups
>>> which does an excellent job of filtering out *all* of the spam, but
>>> unfortunately it also filters out the people who are still using Google
>>> Groups too.
>>>
>>> But Google Groups is going away in a day or two which should see
>>> virtually all of the spam disappear too.
>>
>> I use Eternal September as my Usenet provider.  They do a lot of work
>> to filter out spam.
>>
>> I use Thunderbird as my Usenet reader.  The spam filter/killfile
>> function on it is easy to use and I have used it copiously.
>>
>> Between the two I see very, very little spam anymore.
>>
>
> I use ES as well and they seem pretty good on the spam front. It can
> play a bit funny with Thunderbird sometimes but I'm not sure where the
> real issue lies.

Dunno about that, all I can say is I've been using the combination for
many years without any problems.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On 2/22/2024 7:36 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:
> On 2/22/24 04:03, JAB wrote:
>
>> I use ES as well and they seem pretty good on the spam front. It can
>> play a bit funny with Thunderbird sometimes but I'm not sure where the
>> real issue lies.
>
> I haven't had a double-post issue in a while.

I had a couple a day or two ago. I think it had one it never sent as
well, but as always i second guess myself on those things and it
could've been me on the missing one (not the double posts though.)

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On Thu, 22 Feb 2024 09:54:13 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>On 2/22/2024 7:36 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:
>> On 2/22/24 04:03, JAB wrote:
>>
>>> I use ES as well and they seem pretty good on the spam front. It can
>>> play a bit funny with Thunderbird sometimes but I'm not sure where the
>>> real issue lies.
>>
>> I haven't had a double-post issue in a while.
>
>I had a couple a day or two ago. I think it had one it never sent as
>well, but as always i second guess myself on those things and it
>could've been me on the missing one (not the double posts though.)

Oddly, I've had the opposite, where I've /missed/ some new posts. I
only see them because I see others replying to the originals. I assume
this is a side-effect of over-eager spam blocking.

The cutoff for Google-groups is 22 Feb 2024 so hopefully we'll see an
immediate decrease in spam-posting, and a correlating reduction in the
need for spam blocking. That's assuming the spam was coming from
googlegroups account; I never bothered to look at any that got through
to confirm. Or that the Spammers haven't found any third-party
services that will allow them to continue to push their wares.

Google's reasoning for their cut-off is that Usenet activity has
declined to the point it's no longer worth the effort. I suspect,
however, that it may be more of a legal issue; Google has been
harvesting data from Google Groups for years and feeding it to its LLM
software. It's probably in the clear doing this from Google Groups
users - since to post there you had to agree to Google's EULA allowing
them to use your data however they like - but Usenet posters who
DIDN'T use GoogleGroups could potentially take Google to court for
copyright infringement when their discourse is shat out by their AI.
So rather than deal with all that hassle, they kicked Usenet out of
GoogleGroups and limited the LLM to just using 'legitimate' Google
user data.

Still... I'll sort of miss the necroposting from GoogleGroups users. I
dunno 'bout the rest of you, but I actually sort of got a kick seeing
ancient threads resurrected. My problem with GoogleGroups users wasn't
so much that they didn't have any idea of how Usenet worked, is that
they'd ask a question and then scamper off without waiting for the
response. ;-)

On 2/22/24 13:09, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Feb 2024 09:54:13 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 2/22/2024 7:36 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:
>>> On 2/22/24 04:03, JAB wrote:
>>>
>>>> I use ES as well and they seem pretty good on the spam front. It can
>>>> play a bit funny with Thunderbird sometimes but I'm not sure where the
>>>> real issue lies.
>>>
>>> I haven't had a double-post issue in a while.
>>
>> I had a couple a day or two ago. I think it had one it never sent as
>> well, but as always i second guess myself on those things and it
>> could've been me on the missing one (not the double posts though.)
>
> Oddly, I've had the opposite, where I've /missed/ some new posts. I
> only see them because I see others replying to the originals. I assume
> this is a side-effect of over-eager spam blocking.

Same, but thank goodness it displays the old text :D

> The cutoff for Google-groups is 22 Feb 2024 so hopefully we'll see an
> immediate decrease in spam-posting, and a correlating reduction in the
> need for spam blocking. That's assuming the spam was coming from
> googlegroups account; I never bothered to look at any that got through
> to confirm. Or that the Spammers haven't found any third-party
> services that will allow them to continue to push their wares.
>
> Google's reasoning for their cut-off is that Usenet activity has
> declined to the point it's no longer worth the effort. I suspect,
> however, that it may be more of a legal issue; Google has been
> harvesting data from Google Groups for years and feeding it to its LLM
> software. It's probably in the clear doing this from Google Groups
> users - since to post there you had to agree to Google's EULA allowing
> them to use your data however they like - but Usenet posters who
> DIDN'T use GoogleGroups could potentially take Google to court for
> copyright infringement when their discourse is shat out by their AI.
> So rather than deal with all that hassle, they kicked Usenet out of
> GoogleGroups and limited the LLM to just using 'legitimate' Google
> user data.
>
> Still... I'll sort of miss the necroposting from GoogleGroups users. I
> dunno 'bout the rest of you, but I actually sort of got a kick seeing
> ancient threads resurrected. My problem with GoogleGroups users wasn't
> so much that they didn't have any idea of how Usenet worked, is that
> they'd ask a question and then scamper off without waiting for the
> response. ;-)

Yeah, losing GG does seem a bit bittersweet to me.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

In article <ea6ftipc7hei3vfpdh3qm36f69rrjo9kid@4ax.com>,
spallshurgenson@gmail.com says...
>
> On Thu, 22 Feb 2024 09:54:13 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> >On 2/22/2024 7:36 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:
> >> On 2/22/24 04:03, JAB wrote:
> >>
> >>> I use ES as well and they seem pretty good on the spam front. It can
> >>> play a bit funny with Thunderbird sometimes but I'm not sure where the
> >>> real issue lies.
> >>
> >> I haven't had a double-post issue in a while.
> >
> >I had a couple a day or two ago. I think it had one it never sent as
> >well, but as always i second guess myself on those things and it
> >could've been me on the missing one (not the double posts though.)
>
> Oddly, I've had the opposite, where I've /missed/ some new posts. I
> only see them because I see others replying to the originals. I assume
> this is a side-effect of over-eager spam blocking.
>
> The cutoff for Google-groups is 22 Feb 2024 so hopefully we'll see an
> immediate decrease in spam-posting, and a correlating reduction in the
> need for spam blocking. That's assuming the spam was coming from
> googlegroups account; I never bothered to look at any that got through
> to confirm. Or that the Spammers haven't found any third-party
> services that will allow them to continue to push their wares.

New spam seems to have completely vanished from all newsgroups I read
(my provider doesn't filter any of it) so it looks like its already
happened. I've turned off my "throw away everything from Google Groups"
rule half an hour ago and haven't been buried in spam.

>
> Still... I'll sort of miss the necroposting from GoogleGroups users. I
> dunno 'bout the rest of you, but I actually sort of got a kick seeing
> ancient threads resurrected. My problem with GoogleGroups users wasn't
> so much that they didn't have any idea of how Usenet worked, is that
> they'd ask a question and then scamper off without waiting for the
> response. ;-)

I'm a bit sad to see it go too - it was kind of neat seeing threads from
30 years ago resurrected. Plus as a read-only interface for quickly
checking whats going on in various newsgroups to see if they're worth
subscribing to it was handy. Really its a shame Google couldn't just do
something about filtering the spam but I realise this is easier said
than done, especially these days with all the AI generated garbage.

I've found their archives pretty invaluable too despite how much worse
they've made the interface and search over the years. I do wonder how
long they'll keep them online.

On 22/02/2024 19:09, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Feb 2024 09:54:13 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On 2/22/2024 7:36 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:
>>> On 2/22/24 04:03, JAB wrote:
>>>
>>>> I use ES as well and they seem pretty good on the spam front. It can
>>>> play a bit funny with Thunderbird sometimes but I'm not sure where the
>>>> real issue lies.
>>>
>>> I haven't had a double-post issue in a while.
>>
>> I had a couple a day or two ago. I think it had one it never sent as
>> well, but as always i second guess myself on those things and it
>> could've been me on the missing one (not the double posts though.)
>
> Oddly, I've had the opposite, where I've /missed/ some new posts. I
> only see them because I see others replying to the originals. I assume
> this is a side-effect of over-eager spam blocking.
>
> The cutoff for Google-groups is 22 Feb 2024 so hopefully we'll see an
> immediate decrease in spam-posting, and a correlating reduction in the
> need for spam blocking. That's assuming the spam was coming from
> googlegroups account; I never bothered to look at any that got through
> to confirm. Or that the Spammers haven't found any third-party
> services that will allow them to continue to push their wares.
>
> Google's reasoning for their cut-off is that Usenet activity has
> declined to the point it's no longer worth the effort. I suspect,
> however, that it may be more of a legal issue; Google has been
> harvesting data from Google Groups for years and feeding it to its LLM
> software. It's probably in the clear doing this from Google Groups
> users - since to post there you had to agree to Google's EULA allowing
> them to use your data however they like - but Usenet posters who
> DIDN'T use GoogleGroups could potentially take Google to court for
> copyright infringement when their discourse is shat out by their AI.
> So rather than deal with all that hassle, they kicked Usenet out of
> GoogleGroups and limited the LLM to just using 'legitimate' Google
> user data.
>
> Still... I'll sort of miss the necroposting from GoogleGroups users. I
> dunno 'bout the rest of you, but I actually sort of got a kick seeing
> ancient threads resurrected. My problem with GoogleGroups users wasn't
> so much that they didn't have any idea of how Usenet worked, is that
> they'd ask a question and then scamper off without waiting for the
> response. ;-)
>

Another possibly legal issue is that the EU Digital Services Act (DSA)
is coming into force and Google may just think it's more effort than
it's worth so by shutting Google groups down they can sidestep that.

Over at World of Tanks that seems to be one of the drivers behind the
official forums being closed down or as Wargaming like to claim
'transitioning' to Discord. In typical WG fashion though they managed to
make the situation worse by basically claiming that anyone who had valid
criticisms like say, Discord doesn't support a forum style, was
basically an old fart that should get with the times.

On 2/23/24 03:48, JAB wrote:
> On 22/02/2024 19:09, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>> On Thu, 22 Feb 2024 09:54:13 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 2/22/2024 7:36 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:
>>>> On 2/22/24 04:03, JAB wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I use ES as well and they seem pretty good on the spam front. It can
>>>>> play a bit funny with Thunderbird sometimes but I'm not sure where the
>>>>> real issue lies.
>>>>
>>>> I haven't had a double-post issue in a while.
>>>
>>> I had a couple a day or two ago. I think it had one it never sent as
>>> well, but as always i second guess myself on those things and it
>>> could've been me on the missing one (not the double posts though.)
>>
>> Oddly, I've had the opposite, where I've /missed/ some new posts. I
>> only see them because I see others replying to the originals. I assume
>> this is a side-effect of over-eager spam blocking.
>>
>> The cutoff for Google-groups is 22 Feb 2024 so hopefully we'll see an
>> immediate decrease in spam-posting, and a correlating reduction in the
>> need for spam blocking. That's assuming the spam was coming from
>> googlegroups account; I never bothered to look at any that got through
>> to confirm. Or that the Spammers haven't found any third-party
>> services that will allow them to continue to push their wares.
>>
>> Google's reasoning for their cut-off is that Usenet activity has
>> declined to the point it's no longer worth the effort. I suspect,
>> however, that it may be more of a legal issue; Google has been
>> harvesting data from Google Groups for years and feeding it to its LLM
>> software. It's probably in the clear doing this from Google Groups
>> users - since to post there you had to agree to Google's EULA allowing
>> them to use your data however they like - but Usenet posters who
>> DIDN'T use GoogleGroups could potentially take Google to court for
>> copyright infringement when their discourse is shat out by their AI.
>> So rather than deal with all that hassle, they kicked Usenet out of
>> GoogleGroups and limited the LLM to just using 'legitimate' Google
>> user data.
>>
>> Still... I'll sort of miss the necroposting from GoogleGroups users. I
>> dunno 'bout the rest of you, but I actually sort of got a kick seeing
>> ancient threads resurrected. My problem with GoogleGroups users wasn't
>> so much that they didn't have any idea of how Usenet worked, is that
>> they'd ask a question and then scamper off without waiting for the
>> response. ;-)
>>
>
> Another possibly legal issue is that the EU Digital Services Act (DSA)
> is coming into force and Google may just think it's more effort than
> it's worth so by shutting Google groups down they can sidestep that.
>
> Over at World of Tanks that seems to be one of the drivers behind the
> official forums being closed down or as Wargaming like to claim
> 'transitioning' to Discord. In typical WG fashion though they managed to
> make the situation worse by basically claiming that anyone who had valid
> criticisms like say, Discord doesn't support a forum style, was
> basically an old fart that should get with the times.

Agreed, dc's attempt at a "forum" is awful.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 2/22/2024 8:35 PM, David Goodwin wrote:
> In article <ea6ftipc7hei3vfpdh3qm36f69rrjo9kid@4ax.com>,
> spallshurgenson@gmail.com says...
>>
>> On Thu, 22 Feb 2024 09:54:13 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 2/22/2024 7:36 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:
>>>> On 2/22/24 04:03, JAB wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I use ES as well and they seem pretty good on the spam front. It can
>>>>> play a bit funny with Thunderbird sometimes but I'm not sure where the
>>>>> real issue lies.
>>>>
>>>> I haven't had a double-post issue in a while.
>>>
>>> I had a couple a day or two ago. I think it had one it never sent as
>>> well, but as always i second guess myself on those things and it
>>> could've been me on the missing one (not the double posts though.)
>>
>> Oddly, I've had the opposite, where I've /missed/ some new posts. I
>> only see them because I see others replying to the originals. I assume
>> this is a side-effect of over-eager spam blocking.
>>
>> The cutoff for Google-groups is 22 Feb 2024 so hopefully we'll see an
>> immediate decrease in spam-posting, and a correlating reduction in the
>> need for spam blocking. That's assuming the spam was coming from
>> googlegroups account; I never bothered to look at any that got through
>> to confirm. Or that the Spammers haven't found any third-party
>> services that will allow them to continue to push their wares.
>
> New spam seems to have completely vanished from all newsgroups I read
> (my provider doesn't filter any of it) so it looks like its already
> happened. I've turned off my "throw away everything from Google Groups"
> rule half an hour ago and haven't been buried in spam.
>
>>
>> Still... I'll sort of miss the necroposting from GoogleGroups users. I
>> dunno 'bout the rest of you, but I actually sort of got a kick seeing
>> ancient threads resurrected. My problem with GoogleGroups users wasn't
>> so much that they didn't have any idea of how Usenet worked, is that
>> they'd ask a question and then scamper off without waiting for the
>> response. ;-)
>
> I'm a bit sad to see it go too - it was kind of neat seeing threads from
> 30 years ago resurrected. Plus as a read-only interface for quickly
> checking whats going on in various newsgroups to see if they're worth
> subscribing to it was handy. Really its a shame Google couldn't just do
> something about filtering the spam but I realise this is easier said
> than done, especially these days with all the AI generated garbage.
>
I dunno, if it only was about resurrecting some interesting threads it
might have been nice, but I always had to wonder about people who were
responding to questions someone had about a then-current game from 1991
in he 2020s. And often without actually providing any help at all.

> I've found their archives pretty invaluable too despite how much worse
> they've made the interface and search over the years. I do wonder how
> long they'll keep them online.

On 23/02/2024 16:10, candycanearter07 wrote:

>> Over at World of Tanks that seems to be one of the drivers behind the
>> official forums being closed down or as Wargaming like to claim
>> 'transitioning' to Discord. In typical WG fashion though they managed
>> to make the situation worse by basically claiming that anyone who had
>> valid criticisms like say, Discord doesn't support a forum style, was
>> basically an old fart that should get with the times.
>
> Agreed, dc's attempt at a "forum" is awful.

It's just not what Discord is designed for so I can't really blame them
for it not supporting a forum format. I do use it for our online RPG
group and for that it's pretty good.

On 2024-02-27, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
> On 23/02/2024 16:10, candycanearter07 wrote:
>
>>> Over at World of Tanks that seems to be one of the drivers behind the
>>> official forums being closed down or as Wargaming like to claim
>>> 'transitioning' to Discord. In typical WG fashion though they managed
>>> to make the situation worse by basically claiming that anyone who had
>>> valid criticisms like say, Discord doesn't support a forum style, was
>>> basically an old fart that should get with the times.
>>
>> Agreed, dc's attempt at a "forum" is awful.
>
> It's just not what Discord is designed for so I can't really blame them
> for it not supporting a forum format. I do use it for our online RPG
> group and for that it's pretty good.

Yes, but the way it's implemented is absolutely terrible, especially
with the new mobile ui. Did you know that if a thread is inactive for
too long, the ONLY way to make it appear in the sidebar again is to send
a message to it? There is no way to make a thread permanent.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 10:40:20 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Mon, 19 Feb 2024 20:55:43 -0700, PW
><iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups. But they won't do anything
>>about all the spam here.
>>
>>I mostly just watch this one.
>>
>>Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
>>
>>If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.
>>
>
>Today I learned that Forte also provides Usenet access. Well, it makes
>sense. Although based on the headers, maybe they route through
>EasyNews?
>
>(You should be able to to use Forte Agent regardless of your NNTP
>provider... unless Forte turned evil and made the software
>subscription based too. But I don't see any evidence of that on their
>website. Just change the host name in settings to point to the new
>news-server. Personally, I like spinning up a new .rc file when I do
>that in case of numbering differences, but it may not be necessary).
>
>As for Usenet providers, they're getting thin on the ground... and too
>many of them are focused on offering binaries. How well they do with
>spam, I don't know; I can't imagine they care very much... especially
>the binary-focused ones. From what I can tell, they're mostly
>back-ends for NZB search engines so the spam never gets seen
>
>Still, many of the services offer free trials so you could just sign
>up and see for yourself. Eweka https://www.eweka.nl/en , TweakNews
>https://www.tweaknews.eu/ , Newshost https://www.newshosting.com/ and
>Usenet.Farm https://www.newshosting.com/ all let you try for free.
>Create an account, configure a free NNTP client with their newsgroup
>settings, and refresh daily to see how they compare to one another
>regarding spam.
>
>There's also good ol' Eternal September
>https://www.eternal-september.org/ which apparently /is/ trying to
>fight against the spam (not surprisingly, since its text-oriented) but
>given its limited resources its apparently having a bit of an issue
>keeping up.
>
>

Thanks Spalls and everyone.

Yes, I think Forte uses easynews.

I only do text groups. Just this one these days.

I thought Eternal September was sending all the spam but I think I got
mixed up with a post I read from someone.

Forte says it is Goggle Groups sending the spam

Hello Paul,

Here is what I got back from Easynews.:

We have looked into the spam and it's not coming from our network.
It's being posted using Google. They will need to reach out to Google
to get it removed. Here is one of the Message ID's -
<076a055c-0b70-4353-a3c1-d8e184f15342n@googlegroups.com>

Ana Beck

APN Support Team

On Wed, 28 Feb 2024 21:10:56 -0700, PW
<iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:

>On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 10:40:20 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
><spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 19 Feb 2024 20:55:43 -0700, PW
>><iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>I use Forte Agent and their newsgroups. But they won't do anything
>>>about all the spam here.
>>>
>>>I mostly just watch this one.
>>>
>>>Is everyone here still getting all this junk?
>>>
>>>If not, what service do you use. I would like to keep useing Agent.
>>>
>>
>>Today I learned that Forte also provides Usenet access. Well, it makes
>>sense. Although based on the headers, maybe they route through
>>EasyNews?
>>
>>(You should be able to to use Forte Agent regardless of your NNTP
>>provider... unless Forte turned evil and made the software
>>subscription based too. But I don't see any evidence of that on their
>>website. Just change the host name in settings to point to the new
>>news-server. Personally, I like spinning up a new .rc file when I do
>>that in case of numbering differences, but it may not be necessary).
>>
>>As for Usenet providers, they're getting thin on the ground... and too
>>many of them are focused on offering binaries. How well they do with
>>spam, I don't know; I can't imagine they care very much... especially
>>the binary-focused ones. From what I can tell, they're mostly
>>back-ends for NZB search engines so the spam never gets seen
>>
>>Still, many of the services offer free trials so you could just sign
>>up and see for yourself. Eweka https://www.eweka.nl/en , TweakNews
>>https://www.tweaknews.eu/ , Newshost https://www.newshosting.com/ and
>>Usenet.Farm https://www.newshosting.com/ all let you try for free.
>>Create an account, configure a free NNTP client with their newsgroup
>>settings, and refresh daily to see how they compare to one another
>>regarding spam.
>>
>>There's also good ol' Eternal September
>>https://www.eternal-september.org/ which apparently /is/ trying to
>>fight against the spam (not surprisingly, since its text-oriented) but
>>given its limited resources its apparently having a bit of an issue
>>keeping up.
>>
>>
>
>Thanks Spalls and everyone.
>
>Yes, I think Forte uses easynews.
>
>I only do text groups. Just this one these days.
>
>I thought Eternal September was sending all the spam but I think I got
>mixed up with a post I read from someone.
>
>Forte says it is Goggle Groups sending the spam

Yeah, there's apparently been a dramatic decline in reported spam now
that Google has shut down public access to its Usenet feed.

Well, I'm sure the spammers will adapt. They're quite roachlike in
that way. And if they don't, I won't shed a tear.

On Thu, 29 Feb 2024 10:49:36 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>Yeah, there's apparently been a dramatic decline in reported spam now
>that Google has shut down public access to its Usenet feed.

The spam is gone for me. Hopefully, gone forever.

Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 29 Feb 2024 10:49:36 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
> <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

> >Yeah, there's apparently been a dramatic decline in reported spam now
> >that Google has shut down public access to its Usenet feed.

> The spam is gone for me. Hopefully, gone forever.

Yep. There will still be some spammers, but not from Google Groups. Man, it's too quiet on usenet. [grin]
--
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On 2/29/2024 11:29 AM, Ant wrote:
> Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, 29 Feb 2024 10:49:36 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
>> <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> Yeah, there's apparently been a dramatic decline in reported spam now
>>> that Google has shut down public access to its Usenet feed.
>
>> The spam is gone for me. Hopefully, gone forever.
>
> Yep. There will still be some spammers, but not from Google Groups. Man, it's too quiet on usenet. [grin]

"Sensors are picking up movement, sir! A LOT of movement!!"

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.