is there a moderated version of alt.home.repair

[oldyork90]

I there a moderated version of this group? Or, has anyone put together a script monkey to prune the noise? Does google have a filter? (Please add trump,clinton,obama,... and so on.) Thanks in advance.

[Mr. Man-wai Chang]

Maybe you should just find another newsgroup? :)

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

Or learn to use your eyes to scan past the posts you find offensive or don't interest you. A moderated group will only produce posts the moderator finds interesting.

[Arthur Conan Doyle]

Usenet by definition is essentially unmoderated. Yes, there are moderated groups, but it's trivial to bypass the moderation. Unfortunately, Usenet portals like HH give the impression that Usenet is a bulllitin board that can be moderated.

That said, I've had a great deal of success just setting up an Agent filter to skip any post that is crossposted to more than 2 groups.

[FromTheRafters]

Not to the best of my knowledge. Maybe. No, I don't think so.

An actual newsreader with good filtering capabilities would help, and someone might be willing to give you good filtering suggestions to populate the filter with.

[Mayayana]

wrote

|I there a moderated version of this group? Or, has anyone put together a script monkey to prune the noise? Does google have a filter? (Please add trump,clinton,obama,... and so on.) Thanks in advance.

Not on usenet. There are various commerical forums, for painters, for contractors, etc. The problem with those is that you have to sign up and give them personal info.

The first step would be to stop using Google Groups webpage format and get a real newsreader. Then you can filter specific posters and may be able to filter some topics. You'll also be able to see posts in a "treeview" display, which makes them much easier to read than a webpage display. Thunderbird is a popular program. There are others specifically for newsgroups. I've seen Mesnews recommended, but never tried it.

Another important thing is not to respond to people prattling. It's of limited help to filter people if someone more cohereht answers them.

In this group I filter a number of people. It's the first time I've ever filtered anyone, but this group is filled with a lot of lonely people who want to chat. Some are nasty. Some are just want to be heard and will say any old thing. Some are old and only half-present. Some are resentful know-it-alls who do know something, but end up not being helpful because they really only care about being right. Winning at the expense of the facts. Some ignore common courtesy but also sometimes say something relevant. You just have to choose for yourself who you think is worth hearing.

I was just away for a few days, earlier this week. I came back to find 150+ new posts. That's with my filters in place. There were probably more like 200 posts. It's getting steadily worse. After a quick scan for idiot topics and "Re:" used in original posts (which are noise from outside, private sites) I think there were maybe 2-3 on-topic posts left

-- the one about wiring a dishwasher/disposal and the one about repairing the door. The one about the door was posting an image on flickr, which I can't see, so I ignored it. It was a somewhat silly post, anyway, about estimating a job based on a photo! I'm guessing that poster was really second-guessing a contractor who he was hiring to fix his door. (Hopefully he's not trying to fix someone else's door. :)

There's not much you can do if people have no consideration for others. I increasingly consider just dropping this group. I stay only because I'm a contractor. I like to be of help when I can, to people who don't know where to find info. And occasionally someone really needs help or advice about something related to home repair.

This is by far the worst group I've been in for childish and inconsiderate behavior. I was once in a webmasters group that I left because one nasty regular had created a fiefdom for himself and about half of the regulars allowed him to be the boss. It prevented useful discussion. I also avoid Linux groups. They're filled with smug, unsocialized geeks. But I frequent several tech, programming, Windows groups that are usually pretty good. On the bright side, these forums are completely open to anyone. It's impressive that they work at all, considering all the people who are, so to speak, running around without a diaper, and who *could* be running around here. :)

[DerbyDad03]

I'm certainly not advocating for a moderated group, but I have to disagree with your assertion that a moderator would filter posts based on his/her "interests". Some might, but not all. I sure wouldn't.

I moderate a forum related to MS Office questions, with rights to delete/edit individual posts or delete entire threads. The only posts that ever get deleted are posts from spammers who try to sell software or services as solutions to a posted question.

There are often posts that I have no interest in or are not appropriate for that forum. My "interest" has no bearing on whether I do anything with the post although I will move a post to an appropriate forum on the same site, mainly to make sure it receives the proper attention. e.g. if a network related question gets asked in an Excel forum, I'll move it to where the network experts hang out. It's not because I'm not interested in network related questions, it's because I want the question to be answered.

Luckily, in all the years I have been a member and/or moderator of that forum, we have never had to deal with trolls, off-topic discussions, name-calling, bigotry or any of the issues that we see in a.h.r and many other usenet groups. Maybe it's just that trolls don't think they'll get much traction in a moderated forum, but it doesn't even appear that they try, at least not in the forums that I participate in.

I should add that we don't review posts prior to allowing them to be seen. All edits/moves/deletions are done after the fact. I like it that way because I feel that it adds an extra layer of "protection" to the poster. Deleting an existing post is very different than having the power to decide if it even ends up on the forum. Our method would not work very well in a distributed environment like usenet.

[Frank]

I filter everyone that only posts off topic, even those I may agree with. One took offense when I told him and called it censorship and that was one I agreed with. Everyone has freedom of speech and I have freedom of listening or not listening.

[Gordon Shumway]

LOL.

[Gordon Shumway]

If you don't know how to filter that's nobody's fault but yours. You poor victim.

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

Maybe YOU wouldn't filter posts but a little power is over whelming to some people.

[DerbyDad03]

I do you believe I agreed with you before you even responded. It's right there in the part of my post that you included. "Some might....

[Dean Hoffman]

No one has suggested using Thunderbird yet for some reason. Then use

or news servers. Thunderbird can eliminate a lot of the unwanted stuff.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Yes, it is at

Nice people there. I think Chris was the main moderator.

[Frank]

I've asked folks in news.mozzila.org for advice which has helped. There are few like that nut in Canada whose mother was "murdered" that are unsolvable by TB.

[Mayayana]

| No one has suggested using Thunderbird yet for some reason.

I did. There are also more dedicated newsreader programs. But people using Google Groups first need to learn what Usenet is and how groups work, so that they can research a newsreader and set it up.

[Mayayana]

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote

| Yes, it is at

Nice people there. I think Chris | was the main moderator.

?? That's the site that keeps dumping posts here. It appears to me that they're trying to market their site by spamming newsgroups.

[DerbyDad03]

Not *all* people using Google Groups need to learn about usenet. Some of us have been participating in usenet groups for decades, long before there was even a Google to Group. We know about newsreaders and we know how to set them up.

We also have valid reasons for using Google Groups.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Subtle humor. Chris was always nagging people from there.

[DerbyDad03]

Even though it wasn't their fault that their posts ended up in a.h.r. They probably didn't even know it.