USENET doesn't have such a concept, so yes you can reply to a thread as far in the future as you like.
An entire group can be read-only or read-write or moderated read-write, but that's as fine grained as it gets.
Cheers
Tim
Is it possible to reply to old posts in this conference, or do they just go dead [become read-only] at the 'server' end after a few weeks?.
I did try to find out but failed, so sorry if the answer was under my nose and I missed it.
Egremont.
This is a Usenet newsgroup.
They typically expire from the server and cease to be available. Just how long that takes will vary from one server to another. All articles are read-only, in that you can't modify them. That doesn't stop you replying to them though. You can reply to old posts if your newsreader software lets you, but once the post is more than a week old, fewer and fewer people will have direct access to it, so they won't be able to easily see what you're replying to. It would very rarely be worth replying after a month.
You can no longer do so in Google but depending on what newsserver, you might in others. But why would you want to?
You can do what you like but won't be thanked for it. Usenet is essentially a live thing with an exchange of ideas given at that time.
It would be like someone telling a good joke and ringing a month later with the punch line.
On Usenet all posts are "read only" with the partial exception that the original poster may be able to cancel a post; but not all servers will honour that anyway. All posts are "old" too, in the sense that it's possible for the reader's software to be set so that deleted posts are not seen again. Hence the need to post a reasonable context whenever you reply to a posting. As others have said, the server you use will expire posts after a period so they are no longer accessible to you -- you may be able to access another server (eg Google) to find old threads.
If there are indeed old threads you think worthy of reviving by all means try it: but (a) post all the relevant material from the message yo are replying to and (b) be prepared to be told we have already done this one to death.
Subscribe to the newsgroup news.newusers.questions for information like this.
Douglas de Lacey
If you are using a newsserver and downloading the posts to your newsreader, you can reply to posts as old as you like.
If you are using Google Groups, they disable the reply function after a few weeks.
Owain
"Egremont" wrote in news:QMT2g.40564$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe5-gui.ntli.net:
I think it's better to start a new thread.
If you're replying to help someone you're too late.
If you want to thank people, or report on an outcome, posts get buried so deep so quick, even if they're still "live" no-one is likely to see your reply unless your newsreader, like mine, selects it and dings!
mike
The message from Owain contains these words:
Particularly since Google don't respect x=no-archive.
What do you think Google do in that case? I think they archive all posts, and show "X-No-Archive:yes" posts for exactly seven days, while keeping them indefinitely. The time taken to retrieve those articles gives a clue.
i only ever reply to posts when on the way home from pub, mind you thats the only time they talk to me so why should i talk at any other time to them!
lol
It's a few months since I tried to do this, but I *think* I recall (don't quote me) that, after I'd downloaded months of messages overnight, OE sent my attempted reply back with a rejection that read something like 'message not found'. And I think Google groups shadowed out the 'Reply' button for topics a few weeks old [which are now presumably read-only rather than effectively read + append]. Anyway, I have the impression this just won't work - has anyone actually been successful with it?.
To state the obvious, many old posts actually get read by people doing Google searches, and there are some occasions when information can helpfully be added retrospectively either to correct or update. However I wouldn't want to re-open IMM vs Andy Hall on Heatbanks, for example.
Anyway, all in all I think I'll give up with this.
Egremont.
Indexes of titles and msg-ids care kept longer than message bodies. That is so the server can reject duplicate messages wandering in having been roud the world twice..literally.
The way usenet works, is that servers exchange messages with each other on a totally chaotic =network basis, based on simply who you can get to peer with you.
In the days of UUCP and modems, this gave you the best chance of actually getting all the news to everyone.
However,in order to prevent bandwidth flooding, the communications is of teh form,
I have message ID X do you want it?
Now to prevent you re-acquiring a message you have just junked, the tables of message IDs and the titles also usually are held for a much longer time - maybe a month or two.
When you try and download news, you may well get headers corresponding to messages the server no longer has.
It SHOULD still accept replies to them though.
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