group's best tip

(...)

Yup. I learned how to create better filters in Seamonkey. The good news is I don't see any more crap from spammers using gmail or crossposters from some of the wackier groups. All I need now is a way to program exceptions so that valuable posts from people who also happen to use gmail don't get tossed out with the bath water.

All in all though, it makes RCM appear quite a bit smarter and very much quieter. :)

--Winston

What do do when you get the hickups?

Use NewsProxy (AKA Nfilter) to prefilter newsgroups. It has an option to flag messages. Set it up not to flag the posters you want, and flag the rest. (I flag them as GOOG) Then mark the flagged messages as read on most newsgroups. A few get a lot of newbie traffic, so I look at the screen before opening the next message. :)

(...)

(...)

Thanks, Michael but: I'm looking for 'quick and simple' I'm running Linux

I suppose I could 'whitelist' by putting known gmail 'good guys' at the top of the sort stack and then do a 'stop filter execution' if any one of them show up.... Hmmm.

--Winston

When we get stumped at work, somebody inevitably says: "Ask your newsgroup buddies!" and many of the group's ideas are built into my machines. I'd like to think we have reciprocated to some small extent.

If that doesn't work, I have the latest source code for newsproxy if you need to recompile it.

(...)

OK.

I'm gonna try the 'quick and dirty' first.

Thanks again.

--Winston

Good luck. :)

You're welcome, as always.

"I suppose I could 'whitelist' by putting known gmail 'good guys' at the top of the sort stack and then do a 'stop filter execution' if any one of them show up.... Hmmm."

That worked a treat! Both Denis G and Karl Townsend made it through my gmail filter unscathed. That'll do.

--Winston

Well ... quick and simple is probably not this -- but take a look at slrn (generic unix newsreader with scoring and filtering. I have scorefiles set up to kill on a lot of things, including cross posting (more than three newsgroups) and by "NNTP-Posting-Host: ", which kills off a lot of the spam from China, Korea, India, and so on.

There is one thing which I do follow which is cross-posted to three newsgroups (the "What is It?" puzzle photos), so I simply set up a strong positive score for that "Subject: " and the individual poster to counteract the negatives for the cross-posting.

As an example -- near the very start of the scorefile:

====================================================================== [rec.crafts.metalworking] Score: =-9999 Newsgroups: .*,.*,.*,.* ======================================================================

and a couple below which cancel the cross-posting restriction:

====================================================================== [rec.crafts.metalworking] Score: 150 Subject: What is it\? Set.*

and an example of the "NNTP-Posting-Host: "

====================================================================== [*] Score:: =-9999 NNTP-Posting-Host: 110\.3[6-9]\. NNTP-Posting-Host: 112\.11[1-9]\. NNTP-Posting-Host: 111\.119\. NNTP-Posting-Host: 112\.120\. NNTP-Posting-Host: 112\.[89][0-9]\. NNTP-Posting-Host: 112\.10[0-3]\. NNTP-Posting-Host: 113\.[5-9][0-9]\. ======================================================================

Note the double ':' past "Score" in the above. That means that you can have multiple possible matches, instead of passing or failing on the first line.

At the very beginning, we find:

====================================================================== [rec.crafts.metalworking] Score:: =-9999 Newsgroup: misc\.survivalism Newsgroup: alt\.politics Newsgroup: talk\.politics\.guns Newsgroup: alt\.rush-limbaugh Newsgroup: alt\.fan\.rush-limbaugh Newsgroup: alt\.aol\.tricks Newsgroup: alt\.usenet\.kooks ======================================================================

which gets rid of a lot of what I don't want cluttering rec.crafts.metalworking.

Note that I am interested in guns, but not the politics of juns, and *certainly* not in rec.crafts.metalworking.

It is a very powerful newsreader, so it means that there is a lot to learn -- but it is worth the trouble, and it is linux and unix friendly.

Enjoy, DoN.

I do something similar. I killfile a few specific dumbasses and any followups to their posts. In addition, I killfile anything crossposted to alt.machines.cnc and misc.survivalism. Lastly I killfile everything from googlegroups, except a few specific posters. This greatly cuts down on stuff that I personally do not care to see.

(...)

Wow! Thanks for the information and examples, DoN. They will be really valuable if my current work-around eventually fails me.

--Winston

But whitelists are only used in email progs, not news, aren't they? Tbird doesn't have one.

-- Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. -- Plutarch

Tbird lets you build one, sorta.

Ferinstance, the first five entries in my filter list are the nyms of RCM'ers that have '.gmail.com' addresses in their From: field and are excellent people who behave like adults.

I define the same action to be taken for the first post detected from any one of these people. That is, 'Stop Filter Execution'.

So, the first time Jim Wilkins posts for example, SeaMonkey will stop filtering and let his post through because it will stop inspecting based on all the subsequent criteria before it gets to my rule to ignore anything posted from a .gmail.com address.

I didn't describe it well, but it does appear to work.

--Winston

Yup. SeaMonkey allows me to define my own criteria in addition to their 'canned' filters. I defined 'Organization:' as a criteria.

RCM now appears much more civilized, without a bunch of cross posted political junk cluttering up my screen.

Winston Liiiike.

--Winston

Some years ago, I was installing some control modules. The "girls" at the factory had put butt connectors on the ends of the wires. The girls had crimped the butt connectors twice. One end was on the wire, the other end was crimped shut. I called the place, and gave them a few choice words.

I don't know about it being the best idea I've ever found here, but this one certainly saved me a lot of hassle recently:

When using a holesaw, particularly in a hand drill, and especially "off angle", drill the 1/4" starter hole first. Then replace the standard drill bit in the holesaw mandrel with a piece of 1/4" rod (rounded or pointed first).

The rod will keep the saw centered better, and won't bend or break as easily as the bit.

--Glenn Lyford

Thanks, Glenn. Good idea.

Jim

I'll add a few more 1/4 inch holes along the inside edge after starting the holesaw a bit (easy to see where to put them then). Helps a whole bunch when drilling thicker stuff in steel.