OT Newsreader choiceI

In message , Bob Minchin wrote

I use Turnpike which does what you ask but it is not free. There is a programme called Free Agent which does at least some of what you want the version called Agent is more capable but is not free.

Agent (paid for) or Free Agent (free) are pretty damm good. Have used the paid-for one for four years, wopuldn't go back to anything else. Have tried Eudora but couldn't get on with it.

It's $29.00 to buy, and with V2.00 due out soon you get that upgrade free if you buy V1.93 now. Support is pretty good and friendly too.

If you liked the old IE (4.01) and Netscape (4.7) sort of layout then you'll like it.

Has thread/poster blocking etc etc although I don't bother much with that, it's always pretty obvious whose posts I am not going to read.....

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

It would be if the sensible people stopped reacting to the cretins' posts :-) ttfn

Bob, I use Microplanet Gravity which used to cost money when I bought it, but is now free of charge.

It has a nice feature called a "Bozo Bin". Simply drop the losers of your choice in there, and they will bother you no more...

--> Toms download page

Also worth a look (as mentioned by others) is Forte Free Agent. This is another good newsreader, but I couldn't get on with it - you may find this is suitable for your needs. Both are free these days, so there's nothing to lose by giving them a workout :-)

It's worth bearing in mind that the filtering is seldom fully automatic. Sure, in Agent for example, you can mark a thread to be ignored...but it won't initiate it automatically.

You can also choose to ignore a particular poster - but this is done on the poster's identity at the time. As soon as that poster changes their identity, they slip past your net. You might have noticed a certain cynical poster making much use of this ploy in a most ungentlemanly way.

You could do worse than look here for a free newsreader, and a great many other excellent programs:

Regards,

Forte Agent does a good job - for news, mail, or both:

Regards, Tony

Pan is good as is Knode but they are both linux progs.

On 17/01/2004 Bob Minchin opined:-

Take a look at MesNews

It is thoroughly modern, still in rapid development and its is responsive to new ideas/suggestions for improvements via a its own newsgroup. It has good filtering, apart from lacking the facility to block entire domains out.

I used Gravity until recently, but have now moved to mesNews.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions for a newsreader that might be Bean proof.

Bob

As a Gravity user, just giving this one a whirl right now.

It looks promising, although some of the menu item conversions from French(?) to English take some getting used to, e.g. "Correction of the orthography" --> "Spell checker". ;-)

There are two major shortcomings with Agent: no multiple news-server support and the lack of a kill-file. The latter was the requested feature.

Achim

1.93 has a kill-file. For multiple server use, just run another copy in another directory.

Agent has kill filing....it's the free version ( FreeAgent ) that doesn't.

Regards,

One approach, which I use for example to filter out those infantile abusive children, John Stephenson and his ilk, is to download headers only, and then to select those posts that you are going to read.

That way you can be assured that you will only read posts that are of technical value from persons who are civil and polite.

Ever thought about putting an output filter on your newsreader :-)

Jim.

Though some of you might not know it there is a British computer, still made, which runs the Acorn Risc OS operating system which is superior in most respects, to anything Microsoft have produced.

I think of it as being rather like the Myford lathe or the Morgan motor car. Not cheap, not all singing and dancing but does what you want it to do and is fun to drive.

Getting back to the subject of this thread, those of us using these computers have a Mail/Newsreader called Pluto which is streets ahead of anything available on other systems.

It is probable that some of you who read this started with a BBC Micro which developed to the BBC Master. Fast and easy to use and write programmes for. I recall a firm in Daventry who specialised in fatigue testing for people like Ford Motors, Vauxhall, Rolls Royce, Westland Helicopters, the MOD and others who controlled each of their machines by a BBC Micro. One of the latter was also able to send results directly to Rolls Royce by way of Kermit and an early Pace Modem.

The Archimedes which developed or followed from the BBC in 1989 was the first 32 bit desktop computer and far in advance of anything that IBM et al were able to offer.

Where were all the engineers who support British technology???-----remarkably absent----- Instead they went along with the "industry standard", a meaningless phrase from the IBM/Microsoft lobby. They and others like them have only themselves to blame. The desktop computer and software they and most of you use today is a bloated solution to trying to make a T-Model Ford into a Grand Prix Car.

Sorry for going on----too much whisky maybe=====not as bad as Mr Bean I hope-----anyway I will send it----hope it makes sense.

Donald South Uist

An intriguing concept for someone located in the remoter parts of Scotland ;-)

Slainte!

Regards, Tony

There is a PC version of the RISC OS "Messenger" called "Gemini" which is very good. Try a Google search.

Snip stuff about the wonderful Acorn computers!

We didn't all go to the Dark Side Donald!

TTFN

If you like Agent, check out Dialog - basically an Agent clone, with the features that users have been asking Forte for over 5 years. Geoff