[Info-vax] A cry for help

[Subcommandante XDelta]

On Sun, 26 Nov 2023 13:29:28 +1100, Subcommandante XDelta
<vlf at star.enet.dec.com> wrote:

>On Fri, 24 Nov 2023 13:13:22 -0000 (UTC), Simon Clubley
><clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:
>
>>On 2023-11-24, Subcommandante XDelta <vlf at star.enet.dec.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I wave the white flag, I surrender, this torrential flood of mutating
>>> spam is overwhelming, manual adjustments of my ad-hoc kill-filters, in
>>> forte agent, on windows, just isn't cutting the mustard any more.
>>>
>>> What is the best-practice best-practice, in terms of usenet feeds,
>>> usenet reader clients, and kill-filters, or bayesian spam filtering,
>>> that minimises baby bathwater frienly fire collateral damage, and
>>> stays on top of this synamically devolving situation?
>>>
>>> Has anyone achieved this? - please do report in, thank you.
>>
>>Yes. Use Eternal September. I lose all the Google Groups postings to
>>comp.os.vms, which is unfortunate, but it is a lot better than the
>>alternative.
>>
>>Others here have also reported good things about news.i2pn2.org.
>>
>>Simon.
>
>Thanks Simon and Andy (Burns), for the reflections.
>
>After some pottering about with Claws Mail for Windows, I decided to
>give Mozilla Thunderbird a bash, with the i2pn2 newsfeed and was
>pleasantly surprised - SPAM free, although retention of posts at i2pn2
>seems to be siz months only.
>
>Given some retro PGP requirements (Enigmail v1.9.9), I am still
>running a relatively ancient v55.0 of Thunderbird, but encountered no
>problems.
>
>Looking at the filtering modes available, in Thunderbird, in the
>spirit of "Semper Kludgeamus", spit, tissue, string, and gaffer tape,
>how is this for a way forward until the SPAM flood abates:
>
>1. Everyone agrees when posting a new topic to start the subject line
>with a TAG: [tag}, on date DATE.
>
>2. Everyone agrees that if someone posts a new topic without the
>agreed TAG, then they do not post any solid technical content to the
>topic, only reminders to the original poster, to re-post tout suite,
>using the agreed TAG.
>
>3. Anyone who wants a grief free c.o.v. life uses a Usenet text
>newsreader application that enables then to specify kill filters to
>match both these criteria:
>
>a) The subject line does not include the agreed TAG
>
>b) The post date is after the DATE that the TAG protocol discipline
>was implemented.
>
>Such a filter is possible in the cross-platform Mozilla Thunderbird,
>at least.
>
>Whomeever is flooding the SPAM, is doing so blindly, and it's
>improbable that they'd pick up on the protocol in c.o.v.
>
>Shoot the idea down, gently, and accurately. :-)

Sometimes you just have to take your own thought-bubbles, out to the
back paddock, and pop them unceremoniously.

Such rules work for initial posts, but not to replies to such posts,
oh well..

As for experiments, based on given advice:

1. Eternal September:

https://www.eternal-september.org/

Good retention back to 2005-ish, filters most of the SPAM, however,
not perfectly, the SPAM remains an annoyance, but newsgroup life can
limp on.

2. https://www.i2pn2.org/

Poor retention, back about six months, however, it does an excellent
job filtering the SPAM, and only the odd, sparse, one gets through,
comp.os.vms life can carry on, pretty much as normal.

Both work well with the cross-platform Mozilla Thunderbird email
client, and are free to use.

I cannot imagine there is any good reason, for people to keep
participating with the colloquy through google-groups, other than
using it for historical research, given its extensive retention.

I'm keeping an weather eye on the SPAM, in my usual Newsreader Forte
Agent, with a NewsGroupDirect (NGD) feed, circa 35,000 SPAM messages
in the last week! (the NGD admins are certainly not on top of the
situation yet, but they have been formally informed)