From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

Seriously, I feel like this got really bad when google switched to the new UX. Hey forum moderators.... is there something we can do ? Its like 75% of the posts here are junk.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

paul.s.m...@gmail.com wrote:

Seriously, I feel like this got really bad when google switched to the new UX. Hey forum moderators.... is there something we can do ? Its like 75%
of
the posts here are junk.

Because human beings have a fundamental, biological drive to communicate. Unfortunately, the world is full of idiots who feel an urge to communicate their idiocy.

:-/

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021, D Finnigan wrote:

paul.s.m...@gmail.com wrote:

Seriously, I feel like this got really bad when google switched to the new >> UX. Hey forum moderators.... is there something we can do ? Its like 75%
of
the posts here are junk.

Because human beings have a fundamental, biological drive to communicate. Unfortunately, the world is full of idiots who feel an urge to communicate their idiocy.

:-/

I have to killfile on certain subject lines. I call it "The Italian
Filter".

-uso.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On Apr 10, 2021, Steve Nickolas wrote
(in article<alpine.DEB.2.21.2104102048001.28031@sd-119843.dedibox.fr>):

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021, D Finnigan wrote:

paul.s.m...@gmail.com wrote:

Seriously, I feel like this got really bad when google switched to the new
UX. Hey forum moderators.... is there something we can do ? Its like 75% of
the posts here are junk.

Because human beings have a fundamental, biological drive to communicate. Unfortunately, the world is full of idiots who feel an urge to communicate their idiocy.

-/

I have to killfile on certain subject lines. I call it "The Italian
Filter".

-uso.

What newsreader are you using, I just started using Hogwasher on the Mac.

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021, yabiteme wrote:

On Apr 10, 2021, Steve Nickolas wrote
(in article<alpine.DEB.2.21.2104102048001.28031@sd-119843.dedibox.fr>):

I have to killfile on certain subject lines. I call it "The Italian
Filter".

-uso.

What newsreader are you using, I just started using Hogwasher on the Mac.

Alpine.

-uso.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On 2021-04-10 6:33 p.m., paul.s.m...@gmail.com wrote:

Seriously, I feel like this got really bad when google switched to
the new UX. Hey forum moderators.... is there something we can do ?
Its like 75% of the posts here are junk.

I have seen a several per week but I don't know if I would say 75%.

We've also had this conversation in the past. Usenet does not have any
form of moderation regardless of whether you read it on Google Groups or
not.

I couldn't say how it correlates to the change in Google's UX as I don't
use Google Groups.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On 4/10/21 8:48 PM, Steve Nickolas wrote:

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021, D Finnigan wrote:

paul.s.m...@gmail.com wrote:

Seriously, I feel like this got really bad when google switched to
the new
UX. Hey forum moderators.... is there something we can do ? Its like 75% >>> of
the posts here are junk.

Because human beings have a fundamental, biological drive to communicate.
Unfortunately, the world is full of idiots who feel an urge to
communicate
their idiocy.

:-/

I have to killfile on certain subject lines.  I call it "The Italian Filter".

Thanks for the reminder. I use Thunderbird; they call it
"Tools->Message Filters." I created one called "Italian Spam," and
picked keywords that looked trigger-ish. Action is to delete messages,
et voila, they disappear from my view.

Heh heh. "Moderators." That's funny.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On 4/11/21 3:45 PM, David Schmidt wrote:

On 4/10/21 8:48 PM, Steve Nickolas wrote:

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021, D Finnigan wrote:

paul.s.m...@gmail.com wrote:

Seriously, I feel like this got really bad when google switched to
the new
UX. Hey forum moderators.... is there something we can do ? Its like
75%
of
the posts here are junk.

Because human beings have a fundamental, biological drive to
communicate.
Unfortunately, the world is full of idiots who feel an urge to
communicate
their idiocy.

:-/

I have to killfile on certain subject lines.  I call it "The Italian
Filter".

Thanks for the reminder.  I use Thunderbird; they call it
"Tools->Message Filters."  I created one called "Italian Spam," and
picked keywords that looked trigger-ish.  Action is to delete messages,
et voila, they disappear from my view.

Heh heh.  "Moderators."  That's funny.

What keywords did you use?
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text,
while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.

--8323329-54491636-1618181325=:31759
Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE
Content-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.21.2104111849021.31759@sd-119843.dedibox.fr>

On Sun, 11 Apr 2021, Richard Thiebaud wrote:

On 4/11/21 3:45 PM, David Schmidt wrote:

On 4/10/21 8:48 PM, Steve Nickolas wrote:

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021, D Finnigan wrote:
=20

paul.s.m...@gmail.com wrote:

Seriously, I feel like this got really bad when google switched to th= e=20
new
UX. Hey forum moderators.... is there something we can do ? Its like = 75%
of
the posts here are junk.
=20

=20
Because human beings have a fundamental, biological drive to communica= te.
Unfortunately, the world is full of idiots who feel an urge to=20
communicate
their idiocy.
=20
:-/

=20
I have to killfile on certain subject lines.=A0 I call it "The Italian=

=20

Filter".

=20
Thanks for the reminder.=A0 I use Thunderbird; they call it "Tools->Mess= age=20
Filters."=A0 I created one called "Italian Spam," and picked keywords th= at=20
looked trigger-ish.=A0 Action is to delete messages, et voila, they disa= ppear=20
from my view.
=20
Heh heh.=A0 "Moderators."=A0 That's funny.

What keywords did you use?

I use "ASSASSINO", "PEDOFILO", "PEDOFILI" and "FIGLIO DI PUTTANA" ("son of=
=20
a bitch", I think, judging by the similar phrases in Spanish and=20
Portuguese) so far, adding terms as needed.

-uso.
--8323329-54491636-1618181325=:31759--
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

In article <s4uq83$q1h$1@dont-email.me>,
Jeff Blakeney <CUTjeffrey_blakeney@yahoo.ca> wrote:

We've also had this conversation in the past. Usenet does not have any
form of moderation regardless of whether you read it on Google Groups or >not.

A small number of groups are (or were) moderated. Posts to those groups are emailed to the moderator for approval; only the moderator is allowed to post directly to the group.

It's been so long since I've subscribed to a moderated group that I can't
think of one to name as an example. :-) Something tells me rec.arts.startrek.info might have been one. I think there was also a
moderated group somewhere under rec.humor.*.

comp.sys.apple2, of course, isn't one of those moderated groups.

_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On 4/12/21 1:54 PM, Scott Alfter wrote:

In article <s4uq83$q1h$1@dont-email.me>,
[...]
It's been so long since I've subscribed to a moderated group that I can't think of one to name as an example. :-) Something tells me rec.arts.startrek.info might have been one. I think there was also a moderated group somewhere under rec.humor.*.

rec.humor.funny was/is moderated, vs. plain old rec.humor (haven't
visited since the 90's)
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On 2021-04-12 1:54 p.m., Scott Alfter wrote:

A small number of groups are (or were) moderated. Posts to those groups are emailed to the moderator for approval; only the moderator is allowed to post directly to the group.

It's been so long since I've subscribed to a moderated group that I can't think of one to name as an example. :-) Something tells me rec.arts.startrek.info might have been one. I think there was also a moderated group somewhere under rec.humor.*.

Never heard of a moderated usenet newsgroup before (or I did but it was
so long ago I forgot about it :) but I just did a quick Google search
and sure enough, usenet does have support for it.

I'm not sure I would ever want to write a usenet server knowing that it
is the server's responsibility to e-mail the moderator address instead
of just posting to the group.

I haven't looked at the specifications of a usenet server but it seems
like it wouldn't be too hard to get around the limitation of the
moderator being the only one to allow posts. You can create a server
that doesn't honour the "e-mail instead of post" thing and, if needed,
fake the headers to look like it is coming from the moderator using the headers from messages already in the newsgroup.

comp.sys.apple2, of course, isn't one of those moderated groups.

Most usenet newsgroups aren't moderated.

Also, as the original post was about getting rid of spam, even in a
moderated group, if the moderators let something through by mistake,
there isn't much that can be done to remove it. A delete request can be
sent but it won't necessarily be done by all servers.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

Scott Alfter <scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us> writes:

In article <s4uq83$q1h$1@dont-email.me>,
Jeff Blakeney <CUTjeffrey_blakeney@yahoo.ca> wrote:

We've also had this conversation in the past. Usenet does not have any >>form of moderation regardless of whether you read it on Google Groups or >>not.

A small number of groups are (or were) moderated. Posts to those groups are emailed to the moderator for approval; only the moderator is allowed to post directly to the group.

It's been so long since I've subscribed to a moderated group that I can't think of one to name as an example. :-) Something tells me rec.arts.startrek.info might have been one. I think there was also a moderated group somewhere under rec.humor.*.

comp.sys.apple2, of course, isn't one of those moderated groups.

_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

comp.compilers is moderated. It's an interesting group if you are
interested in writing compilers.

--
--
Jerry awanderin at gmail dot com
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

I'm just curious as to why this started all the sudden and why they're spamming an old computer group. I assume it's some bot that just blasts this out to all newsgroups, but it's still weird. I use Google Groups so I can report the message as spam and it wont show up again, but it doesn't seem to stop new ones from appearing. Too bad you can't block users as they all seem to be coming from the same three or four people.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

Tempest wrote:

I'm just curious as to why this started all the sudden and why they're spamming an old computer group. I assume it's some bot that just blasts
this out to all newsgroups, but it's still weird.

Earlier this summer I was curious and spent some time investigating, but not too much time, because the way to win when you're on the receiving side of
spam is to spend less time than the spammer. If you're spending more time fighting spam than the spammers are in sending the stuff, you're the loser.

Anyway...

I think it's less likely a bot and more likely some Italian retiree with too much time on his hands. I noticed that the messages only hit certain Big-8 hierarchies. If you're running a bot, why not hit every newsgroup in the
Big-8? I also noticed that there's a handful of Google accounts. Likely the
guy creates new accounts every so often as old ones are terminated. He
likely also uses various proxies.

The fact that this guy is posting to Usenet at all says quite a lot about
his age, demographics, and interests.

These spam posts were ending up at my Mac GUI Usenet archive so of course I added some keywords to my spam filter and his posts are no longer archived
at all on Mac GUI.

But there was a time when they were.... and I received perhaps half a dozen
or so "take down" requests which purportedly came from an Italian law firm.
So there are two sides to this story. On the receiving side of these Italian spams is some person who would prefer that these spams not be published at
all! And this guy is using a Google search (I presume) to find web sites
such as mine which were archiving these messages.

Now I don't care whether his Italian law firm is legitimately representing
this guy or not. The messages are off-topic in every newsgroup, serve no
useful purpose to anyone, and I have no desire to pay my ISP for the server space to store this junk. So I've deleted all the messages without question.

But like I said, the way to win the spam fighting battle is to be the person who spends the least amount of time at it.

--
]DF$
The New Apple II User's Guide:
https://macgui.com/newa2guide/

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On Thursday, April 15, 2021 at 5:57:28 PM UTC-5, D Finnigan wrote:

Tempest wrote:

I'm just curious as to why this started all the sudden and why they're spamming an old computer group. I assume it's some bot that just blasts this out to all newsgroups, but it's still weird.

Earlier this summer I was curious and spent some time investigating, but not too much time, because the way to win when you're on the receiving side of spam is to spend less time than the spammer. If you're spending more time fighting spam than the spammers are in sending the stuff, you're the loser.

Anyway...

I think it's less likely a bot and more likely some Italian retiree with too much time on his hands. I noticed that the messages only hit certain Big-8 hierarchies. If you're running a bot, why not hit every newsgroup in the Big-8? I also noticed that there's a handful of Google accounts. Likely the guy creates new accounts every so often as old ones are terminated. He likely also uses various proxies.

The fact that this guy is posting to Usenet at all says quite a lot about his age, demographics, and interests.

These spam posts were ending up at my Mac GUI Usenet archive so of course I added some keywords to my spam filter and his posts are no longer archived at all on Mac GUI.

But there was a time when they were.... and I received perhaps half a dozen or so "take down" requests which purportedly came from an Italian law firm. So there are two sides to this story. On the receiving side of these Italian spams is some person who would prefer that these spams not be published at all! And this guy is using a Google search (I presume) to find web sites such as mine which were archiving these messages.

Now I don't care whether his Italian law firm is legitimately representing this guy or not. The messages are off-topic in every newsgroup, serve no useful purpose to anyone, and I have no desire to pay my ISP for the server space to store this junk. So I've deleted all the messages without question.

But like I said, the way to win the spam fighting battle is to be the person who spends the least amount of time at it.

--
]DF$
The New Apple II User's Guide:
https://macgui.com/newa2guide/

I've been reporting these to Google as spam. It removes them on my end. Not sure if it removes them for everyone else though. I haven't been in here for a week or 2 though. I'm gonna do another round of reporting right now.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

On 4/24/21 5:17 AM, Erik Struiksma wrote:

I've been reporting these to Google as spam. It removes them on my end.
Not sure if it removes them for everyone else though. I haven't been in
here for a week or 2 though. I'm gonna do another round of reporting right now.

Since I get my newsgroups from a non-Google NNTP server your efforts, while appreciated, have no impact. If you can trace back to this person's ISP you might have better luck taking on the sending end.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

I don't know any way to combat this intrusion save for reporting as spam to Google. But I am pretty sure doing so only affects my personal account. Honestly, I worry that it will destroy this very excellent news group that I read often.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

matthe...@gmail.com <matthewmpower@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't know any way to combat this intrusion save for reporting as spam
to Google. But I am pretty sure doing so only affects my personal account. Honestly, I worry that it will destroy this very excellent news group that
I read often.

As Steven has said, not all people, including me, get their Useent news
via Google. I get mine through Astraweb.

Usenet is not a controlled system, and there are hundreds of access
points to what is in effect a very large Bulletin Board. Google is only
one of these access points. Messages entered into the group on one
server, are automatically migrated to the same group on the others.

As there are no moderators for this group, the only way to deal with
thesen messages is to ignore them, or setup a filter on your newsreader
to weed out any messages with some of the keywords in their subject
lines.

Cheers - Ewen
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.apple2

In article <63ef6caf-3098-45a3-939b-d2e35f87691an@googlegroups.com>,
Erik Struiksma <eriknoc@gmail.com> wrote:

I've been reporting these to Google as spam. It removes them on my end.
Not sure if it removes them for everyone else though.

Since Google doesn't run Usenet (nobody does...it's a decentralized network, like Bitcoin), the answer to that question would be "no."

_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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