OT: Thunderbird Problems

[Andrew May]

I use Thunderbird for newsgroup access. It has message filtering that is easy to setup but seems to have one or two problems.

If I set it up to filter one of the groups more persistent trolls and set it to delete all messages all works fine. But then I get all the replies.

If I set the option to ignore sub-thread then the whole sub-thread is hidden but the thread is not marked as read (even if I do it manually) so it continues to appear in the list of threads with unread messages.

I can set both rules but for reasons I cannot fathom it then seems toi still show the sub-thread.

Is there a set of rules that will ignore a troll, all replies to their messages AND allow the whole thread to be marked as read?

Andrew

[Andy Burns]

I set my rules to ignore subthread, so the trolls and any replies to the trolls' messages are hidden.

You don't have the (per group) View/Threads/IgnoredThreads option ticked by any chance?

[Andrew May]

Which is what I am doing but the problem is that it then shows threads as having unread messages when in fact the only unread messages are the ones that are being ignored. This means that the thread does not disappear when the 'View | Threads | Threads with unread' option is selected.

I am blocking on a per group basis but I am not aware that that will make any difference.

[Andy Burns]

Do you have View/Threads/Unread enabled? If so that's what I do and ignored sub-threads don't show as having unread messages for me.

Occasionally when retrieving messages the unread counter in the groups pane (not the threads pane) shows a number of messages when they're all junk, usually it corrects itself, sometimes I have to right click and Mark Newsgroup Read.

[Andrew May]

No I have 'View/Threads/Threads with Unread' enabled. I like to be able to see the context in which new posts appear. It might be this combination that is causing the problem. I will try the View/Threads/Unread and see what happens.

[Martin Brown]

Yes, but you have to do a bit more work and be able to pick out key properties of the troll (eg cross posting into misc. or alt.) and customise the settings to allow filters on Newsgroups: and References:

With this combo I can pretty much kill most trolls and eradicate any subthreads that they try to spawn using a suitable combo. Can't do much about the ones that morph every week to evade kill files though (except target their excessive crossposting behaviour).

The only thing I really miss in TB is full regex matching despite having installed an addin that is supposed to provide it.

More of a problem if you want to see posters from @gmail but I am quite prepared to bin them all because @gmail is such a major injector of spam into Usenet. That zaps a fair number of trolls to. I whitelist a handful of known good posters in the groups where I want to see them.

[Andy Burns]

I have 'View/Threads/Threads with Unread' enabled. I like to be able

Seems to be it ... I enabled threads with unread, and as you say, it shows threads if they have new messages OR ignored subthreads

[Martin]

Can you set a limit to the number of cross posts as a kill filter in the same way that you can with Agent? If so how?

Me too!

[John Rumm]

Yup, I think that is a "feature"... if you hit "n" to read the next unread message then it skips past the whole thread in those circumstances.

[John Rumm]

You can selectively unfilter gmail posters who you want to see, by adding a "from doesn't contain" clause to the end of a "match all the following" list of terms.

[Roger Mills]

The thing I miss most (compared with OE) is that cross-posted threads continue to appear as unread in each individual group, even when I've read them in another group.

[Andrew May]

I'm trying to ignore certain posters rather than generate a set of rules that tries to eliminate as much spam as possible. Individual.NET is quite good at getting rid of most junk. So my application of the rules is probably rather simpler than yours.

[Andrew May]

It might become enough of a "feature" for me to stop using Thunderbird altogether and find myself another newsreader.

[John Rumm]

I find simply auto marking the post as "read" works pretty well for that. I don't usually want to kill the sub thread in those cases since you can get worthwhile conversations going on beneath them after a bit of thread drift.

[F Murtz]

Hit the K key on the original post.

[Andrew May]

Except that I want to kill just the troll and any replies, not the whole thread.

Ahh, I see that Shift-K should ignore subthread. I'll give that a go and see if it still marks the thread as having unread messages.

[Man at B&Q]

It's a pile of (Thunder)Turds.

When I changed form Outlook it imported *all* messages in *all* subfolders as unread.

The "rules" for keeping copying to sent mail folder, etc., just don't work properly. The Outlook rules wizard is a much better tool.

Now it stops with a warning about a stuck script or something everytime it starts up.

Altogether, a good example of "you get what you pay for".

Any recommendations?

MBQ

[The Natural Philosopher]

Do for me.

Doesnt for me.

rather 'a bad workman blames his tools' I suspect.

[Steve Firth]

Problem is at the other end of the keyboard.

It's a better tool for morons, it's useless by comparison with Thunderbird's filters for serious work.

Thunderbird has many problems, filtering is not seriously borked. Also Thunderbird has fewer problems than Outlook Express which is just plain broken, and more so as Windows Live Mail or whatever the f*ck they now call it.

How much did you pay for the severely broken Outhouse Excress?

[Man at B&Q]

Who said anything about Outlook Express?

MBQ