• How can we prevent the relentless spam targeting usenet groups?

    From pschleck@pschleck@panix.com (Paul W. Schleck) to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Tue Aug 29 12:16:28 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

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    It may or may not be useful to also press the "I have the same question" button.

    https://support.google.com/groups/thread/231067143/how-can-we-prevent-the-relentless-spam-targeting-usenet-groups?hl=en

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    =r83O
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    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From rdh@rdh@tilde.institute to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Tue Aug 29 09:14:50 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    On 8/29/23 07:16, Paul W. Schleck wrote:
    It may or may not be useful to also press the "I have the same question" button.

    https://support.google.com/groups/thread/231067143/how-can-we-prevent-the-relentless-spam-targeting-usenet-groups?hl=en


    Seems to me the best way to stop seeing spam is to set up a filter to
    delete all posts with a gmail.com email address.
    --
    ~rdh

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From snipeco.2@snipeco.2@gmail.com (Sn!pe) to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Tue Aug 29 16:01:15 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    rdh <rdh@tilde.institute> wrote:

    On 8/29/23 07:16, Paul W. Schleck wrote:
    It may or may not be useful to also press the "I have the same question" button.

    <https://support.google.com/groups/thread/231067143/how-can-we-prevent-the-relentless-spam-targeting-usenet-groups?hl=en>


    Seems to me the best way to stop seeing spam is to set up a filter to
    delete all posts with a gmail.com email address.


    I think you must mean "posted using Google's User-Agent G2/1.0" .

    To killfile all From: addresses using " *@gmail.com " means that you
    will be discarding many worthwhile posters. The From: address and
    the User-Agent are ~not~ the same thing.

    Regrettably, you won't see this valuable clue, which was provided
    to you at no cost, gratis, absolutely free, by the SnipeCo WWWB
    Internet Clue Foundation. You're very welcome.
    --
    ^|A^. rCo Sn!pe rCo <https://youtu.be/_kqytf31a8E>

    My pet rock Gordon just is.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Wed Aug 30 09:57:45 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    [Original newsgroups restored.]

    CSS Dixieland <cssdixieland@gmail.com> wrote:

    N.B. Please try to set your line length to some more reasonable value.
    I'm sure the Google Groups web UI can do that.

    I have to denounce the narrow views of Mister RDH as not only
    impractical, but also UNFAIR to those of us who are forced to access
    Usenet not by a dedicated client through a server of News Network
    Protocol, but by the Usenet to Web interface of Google Groups. As
    Mister Sn!pe indicates, many worthwhile posters would be discarded by
    the too simplistic method of filtering out those who post from an
    address of Google GMail, although as he correctly informs, the address
    of origin and the client used are different concepts. However,
    blocking Google is not a solution AT ALL.

    Agreed. I have always objected to people judging other people for the
    tools they use.

    Anyway, as I just posted in a thread in news.admin.net-abuse.usenet,
    in most newsreaders, one can easily filter on people using Google Group
    or/and having a gmail.com address and whitelist the good guys. That's
    what I do for another group which is frequented by gmail.com 'spammers'.

    In my case I am practically forced to work with an Apple IPad tablet.
    There is no good NNTP software for IPad. No executables have been
    created by Apple itself. Only three of them by independent
    programmers, available at the Apple Store and in other places, but
    NONE of the three is good. They are all very defective, accessing News
    Groups with them is a pain. So, there is no other solution than the
    infamous Google Groups portal between the protocols NNTP and HTTP (or
    HTTPS) used by the two services, respectively Usenet and World Wide
    Web. And NOTHING ELSE.

    The fortunate individual who works with Linux, or BSD, or Solaris, or
    another suitable system of the Unics family, has not such a problem,
    because he has plenty of good software available for NNTP. Even the
    mass of ignorants who use Microsoft Windows have not such a problem,
    they also have software. But those of us in IPad HAVE such a problem.

    IIRC from a discussion in the Android and iPhone groups, I understand
    there is an 'app' for iOS which offers some Unix/Linux like environment
    and which can probably have some Unix-origin CUI (Character/'Console'
    UI) newsreaders like slrn and tin (which I use) and maybe even GUI
    newsreaders like Thunderbird. IIRC, the name of the app is something
    like 'ashell' (Apple shell). If you can't find that app, it's probably
    best to post to the iPhone group (misc.phone.mobile.iphone).

    BTW, please don't talk about "the mass of ignorants who use Microsoft Windows", because that makes you sound exactly like those you are
    criticising.

    What would Mister RDH recommend to us ? To build our own software from scratch ? It is in theory possible, but it would be like recommending
    to someone who wants to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to build his
    own transatlantic ship. Surely, reinventing the ocean-going raft is
    also an alternative in the pure theory, but not free of very serious
    risks.

    At the moment, we have no other solution than Google Groups, no matter
    what people like Mister RDH may say of us.

    Dixieland for ever !

    CSS Dixieland
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Marco Moock@mo01@posteo.de to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Wed Aug 30 12:09:38 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Am 29.08.2023 schrieb pschleck@panix.com (Paul W. Schleck):

    It may or may not be useful to also press the "I have the same
    question" button.

    I cannot do that without a Google account.

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Marco Moock@mo01@posteo.de to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Wed Aug 30 12:11:01 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Am 29.08.2023 schrieb rdh <rdh@tilde.institute>:

    Seems to me the best way to stop seeing spam is to set up a filter to
    delete all posts with a gmail.com email address.

    No, only combined with injected via Google Groups, some people use
    @gmail.com with other news servers that care about spam.

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam H. Kerman@ahk@chinet.com to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Wed Aug 30 15:03:52 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
    CSS Dixieland <cssdixieland@gmail.com> wrote:

    N.B. Please try to set your line length to some more reasonable value.
    I'm sure the Google Groups web UI can do that.

    I have to denounce the narrow views of Mister RDH as not only
    impractical, but also UNFAIR to those of us who are forced to access
    Usenet not by a dedicated client through a server of News Network
    Protocol, but by the Usenet to Web interface of Google Groups. As
    Mister Sn!pe indicates, many worthwhile posters would be discarded by
    the too simplistic method of filtering out those who post from an
    address of Google GMail, although as he correctly informs, the address
    of origin and the client used are different concepts. However,
    blocking Google is not a solution AT ALL.

    Agreed. I have always objected to people judging other people for the
    tools they use.

    And you're wrong. It is impossible for a Google Groups user to post
    a conventional plain text article through the Google Groups Web interface.

    It's not "judgemental" but observation. It's always extra work to post a followup or, more likely, to post a followup to someone who quoted in
    followup an article from Google Groups. I have to find the non-printing non-ASCII characters which violate the plain text convention and remove
    them. There are plenty of newsreaders in use that don't adequately
    translate non-ASCII into the character set they are using, so the
    non-ASCII characters are turned into gobledegook. This is a
    long-standing well known problem with incompatibility in Usenet that
    Google Groups makes worse with its inability to produce plain text.

    When one doesn't post a plain-text article to Usenet, it's a matter of
    telling the rest of us, "It looks fine on my screen. I don't care how it appears on your screen. I don't care if it's likely to get mistranslated
    by others."

    Stop defending it. It's indefensible. Non-printing characters DO NOT
    belong on Usenet. It's ridiculous that they are in such wide-spread use
    on the Web and in word processing but those aren't comparable network issues.

    And then there's use of non-ASCII characters in lieu of ASCII characters
    where the exist, like open and close single and double quote and
    non-ASCII points of suspension and non-ASCII em dash. Again, there are
    plenty of people using newsreaders that do not properly translate UTF-8 characters (or the character set they didn't set in the newsreader).
    This is a known problem. This can be turned off in Google Groups by
    overriding one of the defaults.

    You yourself pointed out that the user posted with a long line, probably because he's using a proportional font and cares only about how it
    appears on his screen and not to others. But that's how Google Groups
    produces a Usenet article by default.

    For better or worse, Usenet works best on laptop and desktop computers.
    An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart phone screen
    even if one can find an appropriate newsreader. Of course I'm using the newsreader from the character cell terminal and not with a graphical
    interface, but most people use GUIs. With a properly-designed newsreader,
    it is possible to output plain text even using a GUI, even using a Web interface. But Google Groups goes another way.

    "I'm not using a desktop computer" is not the same as "I have no choice
    but to use Google Groups." Give me a break.

    Anyway, as I just posted in a thread in news.admin.net-abuse.usenet,
    in most newsreaders, one can easily filter on people using Google Group >or/and having a gmail.com address and whitelist the good guys. That's
    what I do for another group which is frequented by gmail.com 'spammers'.

    You made a point that there should be on filtering based on use of a
    Gmail address, so I disagree that you offered such a filter.

    Finally, the main problem with spam and Google Groups is that Google
    Groups had been the main point of peering with certain servers in China
    that were major spam sources. The user isn't in position to kill file
    spam from peers. That must be handled at the server level but again,
    Google Groups went another way, causing trouble for the whole network.

    In my case I am practically forced to work with an Apple IPad tablet.
    There is no good NNTP software for IPad. . . .

    I use more than one computer. Big deal. Even if I used a tablet, I'd use
    a different computer for Usenet and email.

    The fortunate individual who works with Linux, or BSD, or Solaris, or >>another suitable system of the Unics family, has not such a problem, >>because he has plenty of good software available for NNTP. Even the
    mass of ignorants who use Microsoft Windows have not such a problem,
    they also have software. But those of us in IPad HAVE such a problem.

    This doesn't explain why you cannot use another computer in addition to
    your tablet.

    IIRC from a discussion in the Android and iPhone groups, I understand
    there is an 'app' for iOS which offers some Unix/Linux like environment
    and which can probably have some Unix-origin CUI (Character/'Console'
    UI) newsreaders like slrn and tin (which I use) and maybe even GUI >newsreaders like Thunderbird. IIRC, the name of the app is something
    like 'ashell' (Apple shell). If you can't find that app, it's probably
    best to post to the iPhone group (misc.phone.mobile.iphone).

    BTW, please don't talk about "the mass of ignorants who use Microsoft
    Windows", because that makes you sound exactly like those you are >criticising.

    I use Windows for certain purposes because I have certain mission-critical applications that require Windows. I don't use Windows for Mail and News because I don't like the clients. I like my Unix clients, so I access
    News and Mail from a terminal window.

    I don't use a butterknife to cut meat. I have more than one knife
    available to me in the kitchen. I don't use a slotted screwdriver bit to
    turn a Philips-head screw. I don't use a sledgehammer to pound nails.

    . . .
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Wed Aug 30 17:37:14 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
    Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
    CSS Dixieland <cssdixieland@gmail.com> wrote:

    N.B. Please try to set your line length to some more reasonable value.
    I'm sure the Google Groups web UI can do that.

    I have to denounce the narrow views of Mister RDH as not only >>impractical, but also UNFAIR to those of us who are forced to access >>Usenet not by a dedicated client through a server of News Network >>Protocol, but by the Usenet to Web interface of Google Groups. As
    Mister Sn!pe indicates, many worthwhile posters would be discarded by
    the too simplistic method of filtering out those who post from an
    address of Google GMail, although as he correctly informs, the address
    of origin and the client used are different concepts. However,
    blocking Google is not a solution AT ALL.

    Agreed. I have always objected to people judging other people for the
    tools they use.

    And you're wrong. It is impossible for a Google Groups user to post
    a conventional plain text article through the Google Groups Web interface.

    I think I've seen some reasonable plain text articles from Google
    Groups users. Not perfect and not even great, but reasonable. But that experience might depend on the groups or/and posters.

    It's not "judgemental" but observation. It's always extra work to post a followup or, more likely, to post a followup to someone who quoted in followup an article from Google Groups. I have to find the non-printing non-ASCII characters which violate the plain text convention and remove
    them. There are plenty of newsreaders in use that don't adequately
    translate non-ASCII into the character set they are using, so the
    non-ASCII characters are turned into gobledegook. This is a
    long-standing well known problem with incompatibility in Usenet that
    Google Groups makes worse with its inability to produce plain text.

    When one doesn't post a plain-text article to Usenet, it's a matter of telling the rest of us, "It looks fine on my screen. I don't care how it appears on your screen. I don't care if it's likely to get mistranslated
    by others."

    Stop defending it. It's indefensible. Non-printing characters DO NOT
    belong on Usenet. It's ridiculous that they are in such wide-spread use
    on the Web and in word processing but those aren't comparable network issues.

    And then there's use of non-ASCII characters in lieu of ASCII characters where the exist, like open and close single and double quote and
    non-ASCII points of suspension and non-ASCII em dash. Again, there are
    plenty of people using newsreaders that do not properly translate UTF-8 characters (or the character set they didn't set in the newsreader).

    Being old-school myself, I mostly agree with what you're saying, but
    in this day and age, 'plain text' does not (no longer) equate to no
    non-ASCII and no non-printing. The war on that has long been lost.

    Even (very) technically competent posters mess up their posts, often
    because - as you mention - it looks OK on their screen, so they're not
    aware that something is wrong.

    So I just accept reality and move on.

    This is a known problem. This can be turned off in Google Groups by overriding one of the defaults.

    You yourself pointed out that the user posted with a long line, probably because he's using a proportional font and cares only about how it
    appears on his screen and not to others. But that's how Google Groups produces a Usenet article by default.

    If you know how to change those defaults, then please speak up, so we
    can show Google Groups users how to become better Netizens.

    For better or worse, Usenet works best on laptop and desktop computers.

    Fully agreed.

    An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart phone screen
    even if one can find an appropriate newsreader.

    Note that the poster (CSS Dixieland) is using a *tablet* (iPad), not a smartphone, so he probably has a screen which is quite capable of doing
    80x24 characters.

    [...]

    Anyway, as I just posted in a thread in news.admin.net-abuse.usenet,
    in most newsreaders, one can easily filter on people using Google Group >or/and having a gmail.com address and whitelist the good guys. That's
    what I do for another group which is frequented by gmail.com 'spammers'.

    You made a point that there should be on filtering based on use of a
    Gmail address, so I disagree that you offered such a filter.

    Sorry, but I don't understand what you mean here (even after deleting
    the first 'on').

    [...]

    IIRC from a discussion in the Android and iPhone groups, I understand
    there is an 'app' for iOS which offers some Unix/Linux like environment
    and which can probably have some Unix-origin CUI (Character/'Console'
    UI) newsreaders like slrn and tin (which I use) and maybe even GUI >newsreaders like Thunderbird. IIRC, the name of the app is something
    like 'ashell' (Apple shell). If you can't find that app, it's probably
    best to post to the iPhone group (misc.phone.mobile.iphone).

    BTW, please don't talk about "the mass of ignorants who use Microsoft
    Windows", because that makes you sound exactly like those you are >criticising.

    I use Windows for certain purposes because I have certain mission-critical applications that require Windows. I don't use Windows for Mail and News because I don't like the clients. I like my Unix clients, so I access
    News and Mail from a terminal window.

    As my User-Agent header shows, I also use a Unix(-origin) newsreader
    (tin) and because it runs 'under' Cygwin, I can do/use all kinds of
    other Unix stuff on Windows. For *me* that's the best of both worlds and
    I do not need two machines, multi-booting, VM or anything like that. (My
    use of Cygwin predates WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) by nearly two
    decades. If I'd had to start now, I might use WSL instead of Cygwin.)

    I don't use a butterknife to cut meat. I have more than one knife
    available to me in the kitchen. I don't use a slotted screwdriver bit to
    turn a Philips-head screw. I don't use a sledgehammer to pound nails.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Wed Aug 30 18:08:27 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Earlier today, I wrote:
    CSS Dixieland <cssdixieland@gmail.com> wrote:
    [...]

    The fortunate individual who works with Linux, or BSD, or Solaris, or another suitable system of the Unics family, has not such a problem, because he has plenty of good software available for NNTP. Even the
    mass of ignorants who use Microsoft Windows have not such a problem,
    they also have software. But those of us in IPad HAVE such a problem.

    IIRC from a discussion in the Android and iPhone groups, I understand
    there is an 'app' for iOS which offers some Unix/Linux like environment
    and which can probably have some Unix-origin CUI (Character/'Console'
    UI) newsreaders like slrn and tin (which I use) and maybe even GUI newsreaders like Thunderbird. IIRC, the name of the app is something
    like 'ashell' (Apple shell). If you can't find that app, it's probably
    best to post to the iPhone group (misc.phone.mobile.iphone).

    I've done a simple Google search and found that the 'app' is called 'a-Shell':

    'a-Shell'
    <https://apps.apple.com/us/app/a-shell/id1473805438?platform=ipad>

    The App Store page contains further pointers, like to the Developer
    Web Site, which in turn contains pointers to GitHub, etc..

    N.B. The Reviews on the App Store page indicate that there are also
    other 'shells' for iOS, like 'iSH'.

    [...]
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam H. Kerman@ahk@chinet.com to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Wed Aug 30 18:25:45 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
    Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
    Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
    CSS Dixieland <cssdixieland@gmail.com> wrote:

    N.B. Please try to set your line length to some more reasonable value. >>>I'm sure the Google Groups web UI can do that.

    I have to denounce the narrow views of Mister RDH as not only >>>>impractical, but also UNFAIR to those of us who are forced to access >>>>Usenet not by a dedicated client through a server of News Network >>>>Protocol, but by the Usenet to Web interface of Google Groups. As >>>>Mister Sn!pe indicates, many worthwhile posters would be discarded by >>>>the too simplistic method of filtering out those who post from an >>>>address of Google GMail, although as he correctly informs, the address >>>>of origin and the client used are different concepts. However,
    blocking Google is not a solution AT ALL.

    Agreed. I have always objected to people judging other people for the >>>tools they use.

    And you're wrong. It is impossible for a Google Groups user to post
    a conventional plain text article through the Google Groups Web interface.

    I think I've seen some reasonable plain text articles from Google
    Groups users. Not perfect and not even great, but reasonable. But that >experience might depend on the groups or/and posters.

    The attribution line has a nonbreaking space in it, always. It's part of
    the timestamp. 5:14<NBSP>PM

    . . .

    This is a known problem. This can be turned off in Google Groups by >>overriding one of the defaults.

    You yourself pointed out that the user posted with a long line, probably >>because he's using a proportional font and cares only about how it
    appears on his screen and not to others. But that's how Google Groups >>produces a Usenet article by default.

    If you know how to change those defaults, then please speak up, so we
    can show Google Groups users how to become better Netizens.

    The Google use of <NBSP> cannot be turned off. There are settings that sometimes turn off non-ASCII quotes and use ASCII quotes, sometimes.
    That helps. It's turning off the Rich Text feature. But I've seen Google
    Groups posters who insist they have this turned off but sometimes post non-ASCII quotes.

    The long line? The user has to turn off both Rich Text and choose a
    fixed-width font, then set the line length correct. Actually, one line
    per paragraph, making the paragraph a single very long line (whether or
    not it's marked as Format=Flowed), causes less trouble than a paragraph
    with long lines with interstitial breaks.

    For better or worse, Usenet works best on laptop and desktop computers.

    Fully agreed.

    An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart phone screen
    even if one can find an appropriate newsreader.

    Note that the poster (CSS Dixieland) is using a *tablet* (iPad), not a
    smartphone, so he probably has a screen which is quite capable of doing
    80x24 characters.

    Good point. There are older Apple newsreaders that haven't been
    supported in years but they may not work on the latest operating
    systems. Do tablets have the ability to start up in linux?

    [...]
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Parodper@parodper@disroot.org to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Thu Aug 31 08:44:43 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    O 30/08/23 |is 17:03, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Again, there are plenty of people using newsreaders that do no
    properly translate UTF-8 characters (or the character set they didn't
    set in the newsreader).

    Which means those newsreaders are broken. Their authors should fix them
    or their users should find better working implementations.

    For better or worse, Usenet works best on laptop and desktop
    computers. An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart
    phone screen

    Usenet is plain text. Line size doesn't matter, it can be easily wrapped.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Thu Aug 31 14:30:58 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 30/08/23 bs 17:03, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Again, there are plenty of people using newsreaders that do no
    properly translate UTF-8 characters (or the character set they didn't
    set in the newsreader).

    Which means those newsreaders are broken. Their authors should fix them
    or their users should find better working implementations.

    For better or worse, Usenet works best on laptop and desktop
    computers. An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart
    phone screen

    Usenet is plain text. Line size doesn't matter, it can be easily wrapped.

    And 'short' lines can be easily *unwrapped* into long lines, if the
    (human) reader wishes.

    As ~72-80 character lines have been the standard since the beginning, 'modern' newsreaders have no excuse for breaking 'old' newsreaders.
    NetNews rule number one: "Don't break old clients!".
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam H. Kerman@ahk@chinet.com to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Thu Aug 31 14:38:33 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 30/08/23 as 17:03, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:

    You managed to create an attribution line with a non-ASCII character in
    it. Brilliant move, there.

    Again, there are plenty of people using newsreaders that do no
    properly translate UTF-8 characters (or the character set they didn't
    set in the newsreader).

    Which means those newsreaders are broken. Their authors should fix them
    or their users should find better working implementations.

    Don't be an asshole. This is a well-known issue. Use of these
    newsreaders long predates UTF-8's use on Usenet. In some cases, these newsreaders predate character set declaration. The newsreaders tend to
    be abandoned by their authors and certain platforms don't have other
    choices in newsreaders that users find acceptable. I know any number of
    Usenet users who deliberately use long out-of-date MacOS's in order to
    continue using a specific newsreader that they like.

    For better or worse, Usenet works best on laptop and desktop
    computers. An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart
    phone screen

    Usenet is plain text. Line size doesn't matter, it can be easily wrapped.

    No, moron, line wrapping does not solve the long line problem. Long lines
    tend to break awkwardly. Again, this is a well-known problem. Format=Flowed standard was developed for the Blackberry, if I recall correctly, but
    it's a poorly implemented standard. Most clients that claim to implement
    it choke on reflowing quoted text. Very few output line length at 78
    characters or less so it displays properly where flowed text isn't
    implemented.

    Anyone who has been on Usenet for more than a few minutes has
    encountered everything I've mentioned. Knock off the trolling here.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From rdh@rdh@tilde.institute to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Thu Aug 31 10:04:37 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    On 8/30/23 04:57, Frank Slootweg wrote:
    Agreed. I have always objected to people judging other people for the tools they use.


    I'm not really judging anyone for using Google Groups. Do you remember
    what happened to the IRC in the 90s? A single host was behaving poorly,
    and because the operators would not do anything to stop the griefers, it
    was eventually quarantined.

    Today (and for the past 5+ years), Google Groups is operating as a haven
    for spammers. If they won't fix it, it's up to us, but our only recourse
    is to just can all posts from them.

    For what it's worth: I didn't come up with this idea. It was one that
    someone told me makes Usenet a much better experience. I haven't
    actually done it yet, but I know there exists a subset of people already blocking Google Groups. My suggestion to any person who wants to
    communicate on Usenet is to not use Google Groups. It's just too spammy.
    --
    ~rdh

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam H. Kerman@ahk@chinet.com to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Thu Aug 31 16:05:37 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    rdh <rdh@tilde.institute> wrote:
    On 8/30/23 04:57, Frank Slootweg wrote:

    Agreed. I have always objected to people judging other people for the >>tools they use.

    I'm not really judging anyone for using Google Groups. Do you remember
    what happened to the IRC in the 90s? A single host was behaving poorly,
    and because the operators would not do anything to stop the griefers, it
    was eventually quarantined.

    Today (and for the past 5+ years), Google Groups is operating as a haven
    for spammers. If they won't fix it, it's up to us, but our only recourse
    is to just can all posts from them.

    For what it's worth: I didn't come up with this idea. It was one that >someone told me makes Usenet a much better experience. I haven't
    actually done it yet, but I know there exists a subset of people already >blocking Google Groups. My suggestion to any person who wants to
    communicate on Usenet is to not use Google Groups. It's just too spammy.

    We've been telling people that for years, but you can't tell anyone who
    is reluctant to subscribe to a News server and use a newsreader as the
    client. Other people have to chose to overcome their own ignorance and
    apathy.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Richard Harnden@richard.nospam@gmail.com to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Thu Aug 31 18:26:18 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    On 31/08/2023 17:05, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
    rdh <rdh@tilde.institute> wrote:
    On 8/30/23 04:57, Frank Slootweg wrote:

    Agreed. I have always objected to people judging other people for the >>> tools they use.

    I'm not really judging anyone for using Google Groups. Do you remember
    what happened to the IRC in the 90s? A single host was behaving poorly,
    and because the operators would not do anything to stop the griefers, it
    was eventually quarantined.

    Today (and for the past 5+ years), Google Groups is operating as a haven
    for spammers. If they won't fix it, it's up to us, but our only recourse
    is to just can all posts from them.

    For what it's worth: I didn't come up with this idea. It was one that
    someone told me makes Usenet a much better experience. I haven't
    actually done it yet, but I know there exists a subset of people already
    blocking Google Groups. My suggestion to any person who wants to
    communicate on Usenet is to not use Google Groups. It's just too spammy.

    We've been telling people that for years, but you can't tell anyone who
    is reluctant to subscribe to a News server and use a newsreader as the client. Other people have to chose to overcome their own ignorance and apathy.

    It's about getting google to stop the flood coming from their googlegroups.

    I filter on all of: user-agent = G2, message-id = googlegroups and from
    = gmail.com
    (some people use GG to post but don't use a gmail address, so all three
    works well for me)

    GG used to be useful for searching, but they broke that too.

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Thu Aug 31 17:41:17 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
    Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
    Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
    [...]
    An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart phone screen >>even if one can find an appropriate newsreader.

    Note that the poster (CSS Dixieland) is using a *tablet* (iPad), not a
    smartphone, so he probably has a screen which is quite capable of doing >80x24 characters.

    Good point. There are older Apple newsreaders that haven't been
    supported in years but they may not work on the latest operating
    systems. Do tablets have the ability to start up in linux?

    I don't think so. But see my second response with details about
    'a-Shell', which offers a Unix like environment. That allows the user to compile C/C++ programs, so can probably be used to build (make/compile/
    link?) newsreaders like slrn or tin.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Fri Sep 1 12:11:04 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    [Original newsgroups restored.]

    CSS Dixieland <cssdixieland@gmail.com> wrote:

    First off, why did you again strip the other original groups? Is that
    yet another quirk of Google Groups?

    [...]

    I know that You work with Cygwin. I can only say that I worked with
    MS-DOS until its last release in 1994, and with Windows until Windows
    98, later versions of Windows were not of my liking for various
    reasons. I moved first to Free-DOS, later I experimented with Minix,
    BSD and Linux. Now I am temporarily attached to an Apple IPad that I
    made the BLUNDER of acquiring.

    If you "experimented with Minix, BSD and Linux", do you still have the machine(s)? If so, you could use that/those to access NetNews/Usenet in
    a proper way.

    [...]

    This is a very brief resume of past or present projects for TRYING to
    emulate Linux in Apple devices:
    [...]
    A-Shell: Linux emulator. Files works. Better keyboard than Ish but
    impossible package installation.

    Looking at the Developer Website and the linked GitHub pages, package installation looks quite easy to me. What problems do you have? Have you
    tried a-Shell's 'App Support' site? Etc..

    Do you need any additional packages at all to compile a newsreader?

    [...]

    All-in-all, to me, a-Shell looks like your best bet.

    Finally, have you looked into other (than GG) web interfaces to Usenet
    which Scott Dorsey referred to? That would be a much easier solution
    (than Unix/Linux emuators). Scott didn't give any specific examples, but
    I'm sure he or others would be able to help with that (and there's
    always Google! :-)).
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From snipeco.2@snipeco.2@gmail.com (Sn!pe) to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Fri Sep 1 14:06:09 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:

    [...]

    IIRC from a discussion in the Android and iPhone groups, I understand
    there is an 'app' for iOS which offers some Unix/Linux like environment
    and which can probably have some Unix-origin CUI (Character/'Console'
    UI) newsreaders like slrn and tin (which I use) and maybe even GUI newsreaders like Thunderbird. IIRC, the name of the app is something
    like 'ashell' (Apple shell). If you can't find that app, it's probably
    best to post to the iPhone group (misc.phone.mobile.iphone).


    Many Usenet users with iOS devices use Newstap to post with, available
    from the iOS App Store, also on MacOS App Store for those using Apple
    Silicon machines.
    --
    ^|A^. rCo Sn!pe rCo <https://youtu.be/_kqytf31a8E>

    My pet rock Gordon just is.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Fri Sep 1 15:21:23 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Sn!pe <snipeco.2@gmail.com> wrote:
    Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:

    [...]

    IIRC from a discussion in the Android and iPhone groups, I understand there is an 'app' for iOS which offers some Unix/Linux like environment
    and which can probably have some Unix-origin CUI (Character/'Console'
    UI) newsreaders like slrn and tin (which I use) and maybe even GUI newsreaders like Thunderbird. IIRC, the name of the app is something
    like 'ashell' (Apple shell). If you can't find that app, it's probably
    best to post to the iPhone group (misc.phone.mobile.iphone).

    Many Usenet users with iOS devices use Newstap to post with, available
    from the iOS App Store, also on MacOS App Store for those using Apple
    Silicon machines.

    Yes, I've heard about good/reasonable experiences with Newstap.

    But poster 'CSS Dixieland' seems to have rejected it, unless Newstap
    was not amongst the three apps he did look at, which is quite unlikely.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Parodper@parodper@disroot.org to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Fri Sep 1 18:35:50 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    O 31/08/23 |is 16:38, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 30/08/23 as 17:03, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:

    You managed to create an attribution line with a non-ASCII character in
    it. Brilliant move, there.

    Yes? That's a key on my keyboard, it's not hard at all.

    Again, there are plenty of people using newsreaders that do no
    properly translate UTF-8 characters (or the character set they didn't
    set in the newsreader).

    Which means those newsreaders are broken. Their authors should fix them
    or their users should find better working implementations.

    This is a well-known issue. Use of these
    newsreaders long predates UTF-8's use on Usenet. In some cases, these newsreaders predate character set declaration. The newsreaders tend to
    be abandoned by their authors and certain platforms don't have other
    choices in newsreaders that users find acceptable.
    Software rots. What else's new.

    For better or worse, Usenet works best on laptop and desktop
    computers. An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart
    phone screen

    Usenet is plain text. Line size doesn't matter, it can be easily wrapped.

    line wrapping does not solve the long line problem. Long lines
    tend to break awkwardly.

    On the contrary, your short lines puts a limit on how much I can reduce
    my screen, because the line breaks leave dangling words.

    Again, this is a well-known problem. Format=Flowed
    standard was developed for the Blackberry, if I recall correctly, but
    it's a poorly implemented standard. Most clients that claim to implement
    it choke on reflowing quoted text. Very few output line length at 78 characters or less so it displays properly where flowed text isn't implemented.

    Right, so they *are* broken.

    Anyone who has been on Usenet for more than a few minutes has
    encountered everything I've mentioned. Knock off the trolling here.

    I don't. My client works well enough. Also, stop the namecalling.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Fri Sep 1 18:41:53 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 31/08/23 |is 16:38, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 30/08/23 as 17:03, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:

    You managed to create an attribution line with a non-ASCII character in
    it. Brilliant move, there.

    Yes? That's a key on my keyboard, it's not hard at all.

    Well, *my* 'stone-age' newsreader can set the attribution line based
    on the newsgroup (or a regular expression of newsgroups). I.e. it can
    show 'On','at' and 'wrote' instead of you local language (Galician?) equivalents. Why can't your 'modern' newsreader do that?

    Again, there are plenty of people using newsreaders that do no
    properly translate UTF-8 characters (or the character set they didn't
    set in the newsreader).

    Which means those newsreaders are broken. Their authors should fix them
    or their users should find better working implementations.

    This is a well-known issue. Use of these
    newsreaders long predates UTF-8's use on Usenet. In some cases, these newsreaders predate character set declaration. The newsreaders tend to
    be abandoned by their authors and certain platforms don't have other choices in newsreaders that users find acceptable.

    Software rots. What else's new.

    Software doesn't 'rot'. It just keeps working like before. (FWIW, as
    I said before, *I* don't object to UTF-8, when it's called for.)

    For better or worse, Usenet works best on laptop and desktop
    computers. An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart
    phone screen

    Usenet is plain text. Line size doesn't matter, it can be easily wrapped.

    line wrapping does not solve the long line problem. Long lines
    tend to break awkwardly.

    On the contrary, your short lines puts a limit on how much I can reduce
    my screen, because the line breaks leave dangling words.

    As I said before, unwrapping 'short' lines is easy. If you want that
    feature, but your newsreader can't do it, then get your newsreader fixed
    or get another newsreader. Don't blame the standard.

    Again, this is a well-known problem. Format=Flowed
    standard was developed for the Blackberry, if I recall correctly, but
    it's a poorly implemented standard. Most clients that claim to implement
    it choke on reflowing quoted text. Very few output line length at 78 characters or less so it displays properly where flowed text isn't implemented.

    Right, so they *are* broken.

    No, the design of Format=Flowed is so that one can display (non-F=F)
    short lines correctly and can unwrap them if desired.

    But, as Adam explained, most Format=Flowed *implementations* don't
    properly reflow quoted text. Again: Don't blame other newsreaders for
    your broken one.

    Anyone who has been on Usenet for more than a few minutes has
    encountered everything I've mentioned. Knock off the trolling here.

    I don't. My client works well enough. Also, stop the namecalling.

    Apparently your client does *not* "work well enough", otherwise you
    wouldn't be complaining about issues resulting from *its* limitations.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Bozo User@anthk@disroot.org to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Fri Sep 1 21:09:48 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    ["Followup-To:" header set to alt.culture.usenet.]
    On 2023-08-29, Paul W. Schleck <pschleck@panix.com> wrote:

    It may or may not be useful to also press the "I have the same question" button.

    https://support.google.com/groups/thread/231067143/how-can-we-prevent-the-relentless-spam-targeting-usenet-groups?hl=en


    Use killfiles in your usenet client. For instance, with SLRN
    under Linux/BSD you can set it up in a near "graphical" way
    by pressing "k" and making choices in text menues.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Parodper@parodper@disroot.org to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Sat Sep 2 10:18:19 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    O 01/09/23 |is 20:41, Frank Slootweg escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 31/08/23 |a-is 16:38, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 30/08/23 as 17:03, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:

    You managed to create an attribution line with a non-ASCII character in
    it. Brilliant move, there.

    Yes? That's a key on my keyboard, it's not hard at all.

    Well, *my* 'stone-age' newsreader can set the attribution line based
    on the newsgroup (or a regular expression of newsgroups). I.e. it can
    show 'On','at' and 'wrote' instead of you local language (Galician?) equivalents. Why can't your 'modern' newsreader do that?

    Because I don't care, like I also don't care what your newsreader can do.

    Again, there are plenty of people using newsreaders that do no
    properly translate UTF-8 characters (or the character set they didn't >>>>> set in the newsreader).

    Which means those newsreaders are broken. Their authors should fix them >>>> or their users should find better working implementations.

    This is a well-known issue. Use of these
    newsreaders long predates UTF-8's use on Usenet. In some cases, these
    newsreaders predate character set declaration. The newsreaders tend to
    be abandoned by their authors and certain platforms don't have other
    choices in newsreaders that users find acceptable.

    Software rots. What else's new.

    Software doesn't 'rot'. It just keeps working like before. (FWIW, as
    I said before, *I* don't object to UTF-8, when it's called for.)

    Software rots because the world keeps changing under it. An accounting
    DOS program might have been feature-complete, but that doesn't matter if
    I can't use it after the 2000.

    For better or worse, Usenet works best on laptop and desktop
    computers. An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart
    phone screen

    Usenet is plain text. Line size doesn't matter, it can be easily wrapped. >>>
    line wrapping does not solve the long line problem. Long lines
    tend to break awkwardly.

    On the contrary, your short lines puts a limit on how much I can reduce
    my screen, because the line breaks leave dangling words.

    As I said before, unwrapping 'short' lines is easy. If you want that feature, but your newsreader can't do it, then get your newsreader fixed
    or get another newsreader. Don't blame the standard.

    I didn't. And wrapping long lines is a lot easier than unwrapping short
    lines. If vi can do it, why can't you?

    Again, this is a well-known problem. Format=Flowed
    standard was developed for the Blackberry, if I recall correctly, but
    it's a poorly implemented standard. Most clients that claim to implement >>> it choke on reflowing quoted text. Very few output line length at 78
    characters or less so it displays properly where flowed text isn't
    implemented.

    Right, so they *are* broken.

    No, the design of Format=Flowed is so that one can display (non-F=F)
    short lines correctly and can unwrap them if desired.

    But, as Adam explained, most Format=Flowed *implementations* don't properly reflow quoted text.

    If -2most Format=Flowed *implementations*-+ don't do what they are
    supposed to do, then they are broken. Thanks for agreeing.

    Again: Don't blame other newsreaders for your broken one.

    You've got that backwards. MY newsreader properly reflows text. It's
    just that YOUR newsreader doesn't enable format=flowed. If you don't
    tell it to reflow, then it doesn't. Working as expected.

    And again, I'm not blaming anyone.

    Anyone who has been on Usenet for more than a few minutes has
    encountered everything I've mentioned. Knock off the trolling here.

    I don't. My client works well enough. Also, stop the namecalling.

    Apparently your client does *not* "work well enough", otherwise you wouldn't be complaining about issues resulting from *its* limitations.

    I never said it didn't work. And the only thing I'm complaining about is
    that you want to keep using Usenet like it's still the 80s, when
    encodings were a pain to use and the only screens available were CRT.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Sat Sep 2 10:41:17 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 01/09/23 bs 20:41, Frank Slootweg escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 31/08/23 |is 16:38, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 30/08/23 as 17:03, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    [...]
    Again, there are plenty of people using newsreaders that do no
    properly translate UTF-8 characters (or the character set they didn't >>>>> set in the newsreader).

    Which means those newsreaders are broken. Their authors should fix them >>>> or their users should find better working implementations.

    This is a well-known issue. Use of these
    newsreaders long predates UTF-8's use on Usenet. In some cases, these
    newsreaders predate character set declaration. The newsreaders tend to >>> be abandoned by their authors and certain platforms don't have other
    choices in newsreaders that users find acceptable.

    Software rots. What else's new.

    Software doesn't 'rot'. It just keeps working like before. (FWIW, as
    I said before, *I* don't object to UTF-8, when it's called for.)

    Software rots because the world keeps changing under it. An accounting
    DOS program might have been feature-complete, but that doesn't matter if
    I can't use it after the 2000.

    But that's the whole point. Yes, the world is changing, but that
    doesn't mean 'old' clients can not be used anymore, especially in English-language groups, which these groups 'happen' to be.

    For better or worse, Usenet works best on laptop and desktop
    computers. An 80x24 display is very difficult to produce on a smart >>>>> phone screen

    Usenet is plain text. Line size doesn't matter, it can be easily wrapped.

    line wrapping does not solve the long line problem. Long lines
    tend to break awkwardly.

    On the contrary, your short lines puts a limit on how much I can reduce
    my screen, because the line breaks leave dangling words.

    As I said before, unwrapping 'short' lines is easy. If you want that feature, but your newsreader can't do it, then get your newsreader fixed
    or get another newsreader. Don't blame the standard.

    I didn't. And wrapping long lines is a lot easier than unwrapping short lines. If vi can do it, why can't you?

    Bingo! vi can not only wrap long lines, but it can also unwrap short
    lines. So there's no reason that your - or anybody else's - newsreader
    can't do it.

    Again, this is a well-known problem. Format=Flowed
    standard was developed for the Blackberry, if I recall correctly, but
    it's a poorly implemented standard. Most clients that claim to implement >>> it choke on reflowing quoted text. Very few output line length at 78
    characters or less so it displays properly where flowed text isn't
    implemented.

    Right, so they *are* broken.

    No, the design of Format=Flowed is so that one can display (non-F=F) short lines correctly and can unwrap them if desired.

    But, as Adam explained, most Format=Flowed *implementations* don't properly reflow quoted text.

    If 2most Format=Flowed *implementations*+ don't do what they are
    supposed to do, then they are broken. Thanks for agreeing.

    Sadly, "what they are supposed to do" is in the eye of the beholder. I
    (and probably Adam and you (?)) think that they should be able to handle (multiple levels of) quoted lines. But some (most?) of the
    *implementers* think differently or/and can't be bothered. Good luck,
    changing that.

    Again: Don't blame other newsreaders for your broken one.

    You've got that backwards. MY newsreader properly reflows text. It's
    just that YOUR newsreader doesn't enable format=flowed. If you don't
    tell it to reflow, then it doesn't. Working as expected.

    So yours works and my one works and neither one has a problem with the
    other? Great, glad we sorted that one out.

    And again, I'm not blaming anyone.

    Well, you seem to be blaming users of 'old' clients or/and users who
    want other users to stick to established standards (unless there's a
    very good reason not to).

    Anyone who has been on Usenet for more than a few minutes has
    encountered everything I've mentioned. Knock off the trolling here.

    I don't. My client works well enough. Also, stop the namecalling.

    Apparently your client does *not* "work well enough", otherwise you wouldn't be complaining about issues resulting from *its* limitations.

    I never said it didn't work. And the only thing I'm complaining about is that you want to keep using Usenet like it's still the 80s, when
    encodings were a pain to use and the only screens available were CRT.

    Nope. I already explained my stance on the use of non-ASCII character
    sets and while *I* wish to see/read short lines (Clue-by-four: Why do
    you think newspapers, etc. use short lines?), other users can do what
    *they* want, as long as they don't violate established standards.

    But, I've think we've covered everthing backwards and forwards.
    Probably no point in continuing. So, AFAIC, EOD. Have a nice day.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam H. Kerman@ahk@chinet.com to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Sat Sep 2 14:47:24 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    01/09/23 20:41, Frank Slootweg escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    31/08/23 16:38, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 30/08/23 17:03, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:

    You managed to create an attribution line with a non-ASCII character in >>>>it. Brilliant move, there.

    Yes? That's a key on my keyboard, it's not hard at all.

    Well, *my* 'stone-age' newsreader can set the attribution line based
    on the newsgroup (or a regular expression of newsgroups). I.e. it can
    show 'On','at' and 'wrote' instead of you local language (Galician?) >>equivalents. Why can't your 'modern' newsreader do that?

    Because I don't care, like I also don't care what your newsreader can do.

    I know you don't give a shit. You made that clear from the beginning
    when you created that attribution line to deliberately cause things to
    break for other Usenet users.

    It's not about how it looks on your screen but how it looks on everybody else's. You're communicating on a network with other people. You aren't
    posting to your own blog on a Web page, publishing on your own server in
    which you control how it's laid out.

    On text Usenet, we post in plain text, and when writing in English, we
    use ASCII. Why? ASCII is universal. ASCII is never mistranslated by
    anybody's newsreader.

    We don't write an article entirely in English that requires no ASCII
    characters in it at all, then create an attribution line that has a
    single non-ASCII character in it in order to force the issue of
    declaring the use of a non-ASCII character set that won't be correctly
    quoted in followup when using certain newsreaders.

    That's trolling.

    When called out on bad behavior, we don't argue the point in followup
    after followup, denying reality. You're just seeking attention.

    You're a troll.

    . . .

    Software rots because the world keeps changing under it. An accounting
    DOS program might have been feature-complete, but that doesn't matter if
    I can't use it after the 2000.

    Nope. You don't get to redefine words with well-known definitions like
    "rot", then declare that you've won the argument. It doesn't work like
    that.

    . . .

    I didn't. And wrapping long lines is a lot easier than unwrapping short >lines. If vi can do it, why can't you?

    I didn't send short lines. I never do. Line length between 72 and 79
    characters (or 78 characters when using Format=Flowed) is the expected
    line length. Longer than that is a long line; shorter than 72 is a short
    line.

    I'm using vim which doesn't typically end the line within the paragraph
    with the trailing space required for Format=Flowed. Because
    Format=Flowed is broken on too many implementations, I don't bother.
    Even if I were to quote Format=Flowed, the lines are received in poor
    condition and don't allow text already quoted from a precursor article
    to flow. To get it to work right requires reformatting all the quoted
    text, which is extra work I'm not going to bother doing.

    Again, this is a well-known problem. Format=Flowed
    standard was developed for the Blackberry, if I recall correctly, but >>>>it's a poorly implemented standard. Most clients that claim to implement >>>>it choke on reflowing quoted text. Very few output line length at 78 >>>>characters or less so it displays properly where flowed text isn't >>>>implemented.

    Right, so they *are* broken.

    No, the design of Format=Flowed is so that one can display (non-F=F) >>short lines correctly and can unwrap them if desired.

    But, as Adam explained, most Format=Flowed *implementations* don't >>properly reflow quoted text.

    If most Format=Flowed implementations don't do what they are
    supposed to do, then they are broken. Thanks for agreeing.

    You didn't make that point. I did. That's why I generally don't bother outputting Format=Flowed.

    Again: Don't blame other newsreaders for your broken one.

    You've got that backwards. MY newsreader properly reflows text. It's
    just that YOUR newsreader doesn't enable format=flowed. If you don't
    tell it to reflow, then it doesn't. Working as expected.

    You have no evidence that Frank's newsreader failed to correctly
    implement Format=Flowed. You're just running your mouth.

    And again, I'm not blaming anyone.

    You're blaming everybody else, actually.

    Anyone who has been on Usenet for more than a few minutes has >>>>encountered everything I've mentioned. Knock off the trolling here.

    I don't. My client works well enough. Also, stop the namecalling.

    Apparently your client does *not* "work well enough", otherwise you >>wouldn't be complaining about issues resulting from *its* limitations.

    I never said it didn't work. And the only thing I'm complaining about is >that you want to keep using Usenet like it's still the 80s, when
    encodings were a pain to use and the only screens available were CRT.

    You're blaming everybody else, actually. Quite a few CRTs were well
    designed and their well-liked features influenced implementations that
    came later.

    You're just running your mouth.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Parodper@parodper@disroot.org to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Sat Sep 2 18:14:23 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    O 02/09/23 |is 16:47, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    01/09/23 20:41, Frank Slootweg escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    31/08/23 16:38, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 30/08/23 17:03, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:

    You managed to create an attribution line with a non-ASCII character in >>>>> it. Brilliant move, there.

    Yes? That's a key on my keyboard, it's not hard at all.

    Well, *my* 'stone-age' newsreader can set the attribution line based
    on the newsgroup (or a regular expression of newsgroups). I.e. it can
    show 'On','at' and 'wrote' instead of you local language (Galician?)
    equivalents. Why can't your 'modern' newsreader do that?

    Because I don't care, like I also don't care what your newsreader can do.

    I know you don't give a shit. You made that clear from the beginning
    when you created that attribution line to deliberately cause things to
    break for other Usenet users.

    I didn't. My attribution line is the same everywhere. And if some
    software breaks for multibyte characters, they should file a bug report.

    I still haven't read any responses by anyone who's newsreaders are being broken by my attribution line. You and Frak obviously don't count, since
    you are able to followup to my message. Seems like you're the only one
    who cares.

    On text Usenet, we post in plain text, and when writing in English, we
    use ASCII. Why? ASCII is universal. ASCII is never mistranslated by
    anybody's newsreader.

    UTF-8 is also universal, and it's backwards compatible with ASCII.

    We don't write an article entirely in English that requires no ASCII characters in it at all, then create an attribution line that has a
    single non-ASCII character in it in order to force the issue of
    declaring the use of a non-ASCII character set that won't be correctly
    quoted in followup when using certain newsreaders.

    Never knew that attribution lines were so important that a single
    character merited five paragraphs.

    When called out on bad behavior, we don't argue the point in followup
    after followup, denying reality. You're just seeking attention.

    -2bad behavior-+? Sorry, Mr. Usenet Police. I didn't know you aren't
    supposed to debate in a forum.

    Software rots because the world keeps changing under it. An accounting
    DOS program might have been feature-complete, but that doesn't matter if
    I can't use it after the 2000.

    Nope. You don't get to redefine words with well-known definitions like
    "rot", then declare that you've won the argument. It doesn't work like
    that.

    Show your definition then: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rot#Environment_change>.

    And this is not a race, there are no winners or losers.

    Again: Don't blame other newsreaders for your broken one.

    You've got that backwards. MY newsreader properly reflows text. It's
    just that YOUR newsreader doesn't enable format=flowed. If you don't
    tell it to reflow, then it doesn't. Working as expected.

    You have no evidence that Frank's newsreader failed to correctly
    implement Format=Flowed.

    Not implement, include. His Content-Type doesn't include format=flowed,
    like mine does.

    And again, I'm not blaming anyone.

    You're blaming everybody else, actually.

    I'm not blaming. I'm arguing that in this day and age you can use
    Unicode in text posts, and that lines can be more than 72 chars wide.

    Anyone who has been on Usenet for more than a few minutes has
    encountered everything I've mentioned. Knock off the trolling here.

    I don't. My client works well enough. Also, stop the namecalling.

    Apparently your client does *not* "work well enough", otherwise you
    wouldn't be complaining about issues resulting from *its* limitations.

    I never said it didn't work. And the only thing I'm complaining about is
    that you want to keep using Usenet like it's still the 80s, when
    encodings were a pain to use and the only screens available were CRT.

    You're blaming everybody else, actually.

    What am I blaming them (who?) of, then?

    You're just running your mouth.

    Pot calling the kettle black.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From kludge@kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Sat Sep 2 16:31:56 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:

    I'm not blaming. I'm arguing that in this day and age you can use
    Unicode in text posts, and that lines can be more than 72 chars wide.

    If you want the rules changed, start a new RFC and get them changed.

    In the meantime, if people use high bit characters or long lines or
    base64 encoding, their posts are not likely to be read. If you want to
    do these things, there's nothing I can do to stop you, but if your goal
    is for people to read what you post, it is likely a good idea to follow
    the rules.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam H. Kerman@ahk@chinet.com to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Sat Sep 2 17:04:40 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    02/09/23 16:47, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    01/09/23 20:41, Frank Slootweg escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    31/08/23 16:38, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    30/08/23 17:03, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:

    You managed to create an attribution line with a non-ASCII character in >>>>>>it. Brilliant move, there.

    Yes? That's a key on my keyboard, it's not hard at all.

    Well, *my* 'stone-age' newsreader can set the attribution line based >>>>on the newsgroup (or a regular expression of newsgroups). I.e. it can >>>>show 'On','at' and 'wrote' instead of you local language (Galician?) >>>>equivalents. Why can't your 'modern' newsreader do that?

    Because I don't care, like I also don't care what your newsreader can do.

    I know you don't give a shit. You made that clear from the beginning
    when you created that attribution line to deliberately cause things to >>break for other Usenet users.

    I didn't. . . .

    You did. You're gaslighting now, so not reading the rest of your misrepresentations.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Sat Sep 2 17:59:16 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:
    O 02/09/23 bs 16:47, Adam H. Kerman escribiu:
    Parodper <parodper@disroot.org> wrote:

    [Most deleted. Only (re-)addressing one point, which is - again - a misrepresentation - or at least a severe misunderstanding - of the
    actual situation/facts.]

    And again, I'm not blaming anyone.

    You're blaming everybody else, actually.

    I'm not blaming. I'm arguing that in this day and age you can use
    Unicode in text posts, and that lines can be more than 72 chars wide.

    Yes, you *can* use non-ASCII characters when *needed*. But often,
    people - including you in your local-language attribution line - use
    non-ASCII characters for no reason (and in your case, it actually makes
    things *worse* - i.e. using local-language words in an English-language
    group - instead of better).

    And yes, lines *can* be more than 72 characters wide, but again, *if*
    that adds value for the poster *and* does not adversely affect other
    users. That's why Format=Flowed uses (read: should use) long *logical*
    lines, consisting of 'short' *physical* lines ending in an invisible
    soft break, followed by a hard break (spaceCRLF).

    Trust us, smart people have figured this all out a long, long time
    ago and designed the RFCs in a way to make the above requirements
    possible.

    That's all we (now three) are saying: Be a good Netizen and make sure
    that your posts can be read and read easily by the audience you're
    addressing.

    If you don't want to be a good Netizen, then just say so, but don't
    hide behind bogus arguments that other people's newsreaders are at fault
    and they should get with the program.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Frank Slootweg@this@ddress.is.invalid to news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet on Sun Sep 3 09:57:21 2023
    From Newsgroup: alt.culture.usenet

    [Stripped newsgroups restored, again.]

    CSS Dixieland <cssdixieland@gmail.com> wrote:
    Mister Slootweg, You are becoming FASTIDIOUS, and I am not very
    patient with people who DO NOT WANT to understand.

    Step away from that mirror, *NOW!* :-(

    And as for me, I do not understand what You mean by "stripping again
    the other original groups", because Your words seem to assume that I
    know something, but I have no idea of what that 'something' may be.
    Write more complete explanations, AS I DO. Do not leave the reader
    wondering what You may have meant.

    Sigh! The original posting was posted to:

    Newsgroups: news.groups,alt.fan.usenet,alt.culture.usenet

    But *your* responses were only posted to alt.fan.usenet. So the
    question was/is, who/what stripped the other newsgroups, you or Google
    Groups?

    To add insult to injury, this time you even managed to respond to the
    wrong article. Your response references (References: header) one of my responses to *Parodper*, instead of to you. Even GG should be able to show/perform the correct threading.

    [...]

    Of course I have read a considerable part of the documentation of
    A-Shell and of ISH. Maybe not every detail, but my procedure is ALWAYS
    to begin by reading the available documentation of the software that I install. I have experience of YEARS with computers, I am not an
    ignorant born yesterday.

    But, even with all that experience, you can't be bothered saying what
    went wrong, what errors you got, etc.. Got it!

    The only interface between World Wide Web and Usenet of which I am
    aware is Google Groups. Deja News does not exist anymore, and I have
    no idea of which may be the other interfaces suggested by Mister Scott Dorsey, if indeed any other interfaces exist.

    In stead of formulating useless questions without providing any valid information, Mister Slootweg, You could do much more service to every
    one by INFORMING of which are those Web to Usenet interfaces, or by
    providing other solutions for accessing Usenet 'in the proper way'
    from Apple IPad.

    Sigh! *If* I had specific information about other (than GG) web
    interfaces to Usenet, I would of course have given that. Because I don't
    - because I have no need for them -, I pointed to Scott. So if you have questions, ask Scott, that's how these things work on Usenet.

    Google is NOT the only search engine for the World Wide Web, there are
    better options available. One is Duck Duck Go, and there are others.

    You don't say!

    Do not ask again a battery of unnecessary questions. Put Yourself in
    the place of an experienced person whose only devices are, at present,
    an Apple IPad tablet and a Galaxy mobile telephone running Android
    Linux.

    Ah, more info popping up, even without me asking "unnecessary
    questions"!

    As to "an experienced person", you still have show evidence to back up
    that claim.

    QED. HTH. EOD. HAND. NC.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2