I'm new and I've seen snippets of useful code lying around this google group
I'd love to go browsing for more cool random posts but I find this whole 30 post pagination thing a bit of a chore, especially when there's pages of spam coming in at a time and almost 40,000 posts. Does anyone have any better ways of viewing stuff in here?

Akasha <nihao123456ftw@gmail.com> writes:

> I'm new and I've seen snippets of useful code lying around this google
> group

This is not a Google Group. When Google started groups, they
incorporated all of what was once Usenet into the product. Groups like
this that existed prior to GG, are still Usenet groups and can be read
as such using software what often goes by the name of a "news reader"
(i.e. slrn, tin, pan, gnus and so on). Posts made via GG show up in the
Usenet group and vice-versa so, in effect, GG acts as a web-based news
reader.

> I'd love to go browsing for more cool random posts but I find this
> whole 30 post pagination thing a bit of a chore, especially when
> there's pages of spam coming in at a time and almost 40,000
> posts. Does anyone have any better ways of viewing stuff in here?

I use a free Usenet server called "eternal September" and a news reader
called gnus that run under Emacs. The view I get of this group suits me
well (I could not use the GG web interface for any serious reading) but
then I've been using Usenet for decades so I have had a head start!

--
Ben.

On 2023-05-29, Akasha <nihao123456ftw@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm new and I've seen snippets of useful code lying around this google group

Lucky for you, this is not a Google Group, but a Uset Newsgroup.

Google Groups are forums run by Google, accessible through the site.

The Google Groups site also carries Usenet newsgroups, and acts as a
very shitty portal for interacting with Usenet.

The normal way of using Usenet is to use a client program called a
"newsreader", connected to a news server (via the NNTP protocol).

There a numerous newsreaders. Some Lisp people use the one in GNU Emacs,
called gnus. Mozilla Thunderbird, mostly known as a mail client, can be
used as a newsreader.

You don't have to use it; learn how to use a program called a
"newsreader" (there are numerous) to connect to a news server.

I am using the SLRN newsreader, and the server
news.eternal-september.org.

That requires an authenticated account; you can create one for free at
the eternal-september.org website.

> I'd love to go browsing for more cool random posts but I find this
> whole 30 post pagination thing a bit of a chore, especially when
> there's pages of spam coming in at a time and almost 40,000 posts.

Ah, on the topic of spam, you will see very little spam when using
NNTP, because the news servers do a good job of blocking it, unlike
Google.

Furthermore, any decent NNTP client has filtering features for
eliminating spam.

An NNTP client fetches numerous article headers from the server,
and can apply rules to hide unwanted crap before presenting
the view.

Google Groups is an absolute user interface disaster (that is getting
worse by the year, it seems).

--
TXR Programming Language: http://nongnu.org/txr
Cygnal: Cygwin Native Application Library: http://kylheku.com/cygnal
Mastodon: @Kazinator@mstdn.ca

On Monday, May 29, 2023 at 5:25:16 PM UTC+2, Akasha wrote:
> I'm new and I've seen snippets of useful code lying around this google group
> I'd love to go browsing for more cool random posts but I find this whole 30 post pagination thing a bit of a chore, especially when there's pages of spam coming in at a time and almost 40,000 posts. Does anyone have any better ways of viewing stuff in here?

Don't listen to the imbeciles here telling you this is NOT a Google group, it is a Google group even though it started on usenet, Google long ago acquired all usenet groups. It's just benevolence that they let them be managed still by usenet clients, maybe not even benevolence, I guess they don't care enough, it's just a handful of losers who still use those.

On 2023-06-12 07:46, Francogrex wrote (in part):
> Don't listen to the imbeciles here telling you this is NOT a Google group, [...]

This is complete nonsense. Google acquired the archives in 2001 and
even occasionally bans groups such as comp.lang.lisp, comp.lang.oberon,
and others -- though all are available from other usenet servers.

Akasha <nihao123456ftw@gmail.com> writes:

> I'm new and I've seen snippets of useful code lying around this google group
> I'd love to go browsing for more cool random posts but I find this whole 30
> post pagination thing a bit of a chore, especially when there's pages of spam
> coming in at a time and almost 40,000 posts. Does anyone have any better ways
> of viewing stuff in here?

As a few others have pointed out, the problem is Google Groups. c.l.lisp is
actually a Usenet newsgroup, and GG provides access to it via their website,
which is not an especially good interface for reading Usenet articles.

GG also does not make it super clear what is and is not a Google-specific
("private") group or a Usenet ("public") newsgroup, which is why you get people
sometimes insisting that Google "owns" all of this now. What Google does is
provide access to the public Usenet parts, and also stores a very large archive
of old articles. Private Google Groups, otoh, work more like private mailing
lists, and don't end up on Usenet.

If all you want to do is read "cool random posts" and code snippets, you might
look for a public Usenet archive. I suggest this because newsreaders like Pan
or Gnus are a lot more complicated than the web-forum-like GG interface, and
can take time to learn. I think archive dot org probably has an archive of
vintage c.l.lisp articles you could check out, if not more than one.

If you want to post interactively, you should look into newsreader programs. A
newsreader will provide spam filtering, conversation threading, allow you to
fetch as many posts as you want at once (not just 30 per page), and so on.

Also, find a free non-Google news server. All the same posts will be available
on other servers as on GG, so long as it isn't a private group. That's how
Usenet works: it's decentralised, and servers forward posts to each other, so
you can connect to any server you want and people can read your posts without
needing to use the same one as you.

Some news providers have you pay a subscription, as they specialise in file
sharing, so you're paying for bandwidth, but others like eternal september are
free or run off donations because talk (i.e. plain text) is cheap.

--
;; Basically just a Boltzmann brain with extra steps.
;; -*- (rfc1924 "YiVsRYGrgTcVTuwaB^>SZ*Fa2X>2ZIXa") -*-

On Sun, 16 Jul 2023 01:23:49 -0400, Kevin J Witczak
<k.j.w@rfc1924mail.nop> wrote:

>Also, find a free non-Google news server. All the same posts will be available
>on other servers as on GG, so long as it isn't a private group. That's how
>Usenet works: it's decentralised, and servers forward posts to each other, so
>you can connect to any server you want and people can read your posts without
>needing to use the same one as you.
>
>Some news providers have you pay a subscription, as they specialise in file
>sharing, so you're paying for bandwidth, but others like eternal september are
>free or run off donations because talk (i.e. plain text) is cheap.

+1

Additionally, be aware that many (most?) usenet providers do not carry
the full history of the group's messages. Typical is to carry 5..10
years worth. Eternal September is probably the best of the free
providers as it goes back up to 20 years (if the group is that old).

FWIW: c.l.lisp is very old: I don't know exactly when it began, but I
started reading it in the mid 90's. You should check out the usenet
archives even if you do subscribe to a (non-Google) usenet provider.

https://archive.org/details/usenet
https://www.usenetarchives.com/

On 2023-07-16, George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> wrote:
> FWIW: c.l.lisp is very old: I don't know exactly when it began, but I
> started reading it in the mid 90's. You should check out the usenet
> archives even if you do subscribe to a (non-Google) usenet provider.

comp.lang.lisp traces back to before the big renaming; I think it
was net.lang.lisp before.

--
TXR Programming Language: http://nongnu.org/txr
Cygnal: Cygwin Native Application Library: http://kylheku.com/cygnal
Mastodon: @Kazinator@mstdn.ca

In article <87h6q44efu.fsf@rfc1924mail.nop>,
Kevin J Witczak <k.j.w@rfc1924mail.nop> wrote:
<SNIP>
>Some news providers have you pay a subscription, as they specialise in file
>sharing, so you're paying for bandwidth, but others like eternal september are
>free or run off donations because talk (i.e. plain text) is cheap.

And then there are internet providers that consider that a basic
service like DNS, like mine.

>
>--
>;; Basically just a Boltzmann brain with extra steps.
>;; -*- (rfc1924 "YiVsRYGrgTcVTuwaB^>SZ*Fa2X>2ZIXa") -*-

Groetjes Albert
--
Don't praise the day before the evening. One swallow doesn't make spring.
You must not say "hey" before you have crossed the bridge. Don't sell the
hide of the bear until you shot it. Better one bird in the hand than ten in
the air. First gain is a cat spinning. - the Wise from Antrim -

> it is a Google group even though it started on usenet, Google long ago
> acquired all usenet groups.

Given the "gossip" nature of the NNTP protocol, it's not really possible
to "acquire" a newsgroup.

Stefan

Akasha <nihao123456ftw@gmail.com> writes:

> I'm new and I've seen snippets of useful code lying around this google group
> I'd love to go browsing for more cool random posts but I find this
> whole 30 post pagination thing a bit of a chore, especially when
> there's pages of spam coming in at a time and almost 40,000 posts.
> Does anyone have any better ways of viewing stuff in here?

Gnus on Emacs has lots of good features. You can search text and load as
many articles as you like.

--
Adam Mickiewicz on coffee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J-L5mRoc6c

Akasha <nihao123456ftw@gmail.com> writes:

< I'm new and I've seen snippets of useful code lying around this google group
< I'd love to go browsing for more cool random posts but I find this whole 30
< post pagination thing a bit of a chore, especially when there's pages of spam
< coming in at a time and almost 40,000 posts. Does anyone have any better ways
< of viewing stuff in here?

I use news.giganews.com with emacs GNUS or thuunderbird newsgroups. I do
not use google; the interface is cumbersome.