Test. This used to be Usenet. What the h- has happened?

[Graham.]

Chris Bacon! No I don't remember you

[Chris Bacon]

I used to post here. I feel like Rip Van Winkle (will that be censored?).

This comes from "HomeOwnerdsHub" (sic). I hope it's OK and not spammy. I'm sure someone will tell me if it is... Are Usenet newsreaders still availanle/how, to keep a DIY theme?

I wonder what will happen when I press *this*

[John Rumm]

Hi Chris,

Hello again!

Yup newsreaders are still available and the better way to get here. Thunderbird being one of the most commonly used...

Details on conventional ways of access:

Keeping to a DIY theme is perhaps harder than you might recall last time you were here. The above page has some good stuff on filtering thought.

HoH would in theory be a reasonable enough web/usenet gateway, but it does have a couple of "special features" that make it a bit of a PITA for usenet users.

You will get replies - but whether you will ever be able to find them on that web site is another matter! :-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Thunderbird has a reasonable USENET client

[Paul]

To test Thunderbird, the AIOE server does not use a userid:password to work. It allows a limited number of postings per day.

Thunderbird has fallen on hard times, in the sense that Mozilla tried to "move them out on their own", but the move only kinda half worked. Mozilla wanted another organization (say, the Apache organization) to pick them up and magically provide download bandwidth. No organization of that type took an interest, so Thunderbird is sorta "living in its parents basement".

None of this particularly matters, except when you're tying to figure out their web page scheme. They did try to create their own web site, but a lot of the links on it, are fueled by the mozilla.org server.

*******

news.aioe.org

Port 119 (Plain and TLS) <=== tradition port, userid/passwd unencrypted Port 563 (SSL only) <=== newer method, like https, userid/passwd encrypted Of course, AIOE doesn't use a password ?!?

nntp.aioe.org main server

119 (Plain and TLS) 563 (SSL Only) 443 (SSL Only) 22 (SSL Only) 80 (Plain and TLS)

You need some of this information, when filling out the new server information in Thunderbird.

There should be some examples of Thunderbird setup screens floating about. This example is for Eternal-September server (apply-for-an-account type server). It uses the Always-Request-Authentication tick box. AIOE does not want or need that box ticked, and that would be one example of a difference with respect to the screen shots shown here.

Port 119 will work just fine for AIOE testing...

Paul

[Tim Streater]

You will get a response, that is what will happen.

Some newsreaders are falling by the wayside as they are 32-bit only, which will cease to be supported at some point. But you can go to:

for information about a new Usenet client that is 64-bit.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Only in ten years time. grin Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

I call it home owners club as their way of working with usernet is to beat it over the head with a club as if they are the only people doing it right, when in essence they are the only ones doing it wrong as far as access is concerned. Brian

[alan_m]

Many users of the Usenet uk.d-i-y are using a variety of Usenet newsreaders and post/receive from a variety of Usenet servers, some free and some with a nominal yearly fee (I pay 10 Euros a year for my feed)

Many people on the uk.d-i-y Usenet group block all posts from home owners hub because the appalling web site has the tendency to promote decades old questions as if they were posted yesterday. As a result the Usenet group gets posting from home owners hub that only make sense if reading the group 10 years ago. In addition no-one from the hub seems to quote anything about what they are answering[1] and there is NEVER any follow-up postings when Usenet users ask for clarification etc. which probably indicates none of the hub users actually read any answers.

[1] There is URL giving some clue about the subject and the original date of posting but most people wouldn't bother following it, mainly because they already would be aware that the tread should have died in 2010 (or earlier). In the sister motoring hub forum the (broken) URL is always about a Fiat Punto/Pinto?? irrespective the subject matter being discussed.

[tabbypurr]

welcome back

any competent newsreader has filters. You'll soon see who to filter out

now you know

NT

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Home owners club interface is crap. Use a client of some kind, yes they are still out there as are servers. Always did have spam and off topic stuff in unmoderated groups of course but most were either just ignoring that or killfiling the main ones. I still find it interesting and yes, probably do say too much to crossposted off topic threads at times, but one does not need to get bitter and twisted about top posting overquoting or all the other things the anally retentive used to push as good practice, in my view. You can do as you want rule wise in a moderated group, but not really control open ones which is why we have hellish interfaces like home Owners Club peddling newsgroups as if they were their own property. Brian

[Tim+]

Or maybe not...

HOH users rarely reply to any threads they post to, especially if they?ve tagged on to an old thread as HOH sorts all threads by the date of the

*first* message, not the most recent.

I can?t think of a reason why they shouldn?t see replies to new threads but HOH is weird so who knows...

Tim

[Chris Bacon]

On 09/06/2020 07:16, Paul wrote: > Chris Bacon wrote: >> I used to post here. I feel like Rip Van Winkle (will that be censored?). >>

Thank you! Does this look better? I will have to double-check the headers in case of "embarrassments".

[Paul]

Looks good.

Your reply address looks real. Was that your intention ? You have a maildrop.cc address there.

If the intention is for the email address to be invalid, the .invalid domain exists for that

[e-mail]

The .invalid domain is set aside for this purpose.

Email address harvesting used to be a problem, but I don't know if anyone bothers now considering the user population of USENET. Spam used to be a problem too, with the various campaigns and MMF, but you don't see too much of that now either. Although someone was trying to "sell iPhones to COVID people at low low prices".

Some of the USENET servers do have posting filters (cleanfeed), that remove athletic shoe adverts. I've noticed one server doing a bit more filtering of that sort.

Paul

[alan_m]

I use both a valid from and reply address of my own and the amount of spam arriving to these addresses is negligible - around 5 off this year to my reply address.

I do filter both (unique) addresses and only use them for Usenet postings.

[Dave W]

By "here" he means HOH, not D-I-Y.

[newshound]

+1

[Tim Streater]

I tried it but decided it was s**te. Can't remember why now.

[Max Demian]

One problem I have with Thunderbird is that if the text of a post doesn't load for some reason I get left with a blank post - I don't know of a way to reload the post.

Also there doesn't seem to be a way to load the bodies of posts at the same time as checking the headers. The bodies are always loaded when I alight on them.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its not great, but its good enough - for me, anyway.