On 2007-12-31 13:47:56 +0000, John Stumbles said:

What's the world coming to when our trusted secret services can't properly
bump off someone they don't like? Or maybe they don't like us DIYers so
*they( are presecuting *us* with this c-r'a*p. Anyhow, now that a simple
match to subject line or author doesn't filter out the posts concerned we
need either a more sophisticated newsreader or a news feed that stomps on
such stuff.

I've already been through option 1 trying to read comp.os.linux.misc (which
gets deluged with posts of Racter-like ramblings) and the only option I've
found for Linux is the console-based slrn, which is undoubtedly a fine
newsreader but a steep learning curve from a gui-based one.

Another option which I've resisted so far is to set up a local newsfeed
with the fitering I need, but there are only so many Tuits in a Day sigh


Does that E10pa/used-to-be-free newsserver,

news.individual.net ? They only carry text and not binary articles.
They also implement "cleanfeed" which is a server side filter.
Details at

http://www.exit109.com/~jeremy/news/...ed/cf-faq.html

I use this one and the preponderance of SPAM postings is relatively low
on this group and several others that I use.

I can remove the rest with news client filters quite easily.

or any other
publically-available, reasonably-priced ones, do such filtering?

In the past, I have implemented and run INN in a commercial
environment. It was quite good but at the time didn't support suck
feeds, so one had to have an ISP willing to provide a news feed as well
as having the server open on the public internet.

I switched to using DNEWS some years ago, mainly because it can use
suck feeds and has good controls and filtering as well.

Essentially, a suck feed is configured in much the same way as a
personal newsreader configuration - user name and password. You can
have several servers if you like. DNEWS then goes out and gets the
complete list of newsgroups from the feed and caches them locally. The
user client is configured as normal, but nothing is downloaded from the
upstream server until a local user subscribes to a group. Then
everything for that group that is available or everything newer than N
days is downloaded and becomes available for access in the usual way.
A cron job kicks off a look for new messages when required - I tend to
use every 5 minutes at peak times and less at other times. There are
configurable settings for how long to store messages on the DNEWS
server and also a timeout to stop downloading if nobody reads a group
for more than N days.

There is also the advantage that one doesn't have to have a server with
port 119 exposed on the public internet - outgoing connections only -
although obviously it will behave as a conventional server as well if
you can get a news feed supply.

There is a comprehensive filter language and worked examples as well.

http://www.netwinsite.com/dnews/rules.htm

A one-user server license is $95 U.S. (about £50) which I think is
pretty good for what it does.

In the past, I have run the server on Win2k, but moved it to a Linux
one more recently. Both work without problems, IME.