On 2011-09-30, Question for RCM Folks wrote:

This used to be such a great newsgroup. Returning after a few years,
I see mostly politics and nonsense. Other than blocking the original
posters (who change their email address often), anyone know how to
filter out the goofy stuff?

The last statistics report is disgraceful....

Agreed.

Place Subject Msgs Bytes

[ ... report snipped ... ]

FWIW -- I never saw *any* of these.

Typically, I will see 25% to 12% of the full count of articles
-- or less. Sometimes, there will be 1000+ showing when I enter, and on
the order of 100 or so when the filtering has done its thing.

Yes -- filtering is the answer.

But it probably requires a better newsreader than Outlook
Express (which your headers say you are using).

You need a newsreader which allows you to filter on various
things in the headers. Since I don't use Windows,

But you have to maintain the filters for best results.

Start off by filtering on the number of newsgroups in the
"Newsgroups: " header (by counting commas). I figure that anything over
three newsgroups should be totally skipped, and three or two should be
viewed with caution.

Add absolute discard for any cross-posted to certain newsgroups
in the "Newsgroups: " header. (you can build your own list by observing
the headers of the offending articles).

Add absolute discard for any article which mentions *any*
politician's name in the "Subject: header.

Same for certain mentions of other subjects. (Build your own
list for what offends you.

Observe who posted the offensive articles -- especially those
who originated it (no " " at the beginning of the "Subject: "
header), and start adding names to the "From: " lines -- sometimes
partial names for those who change their name from time to time.

After a while, you will simply need to add occasional "Subject:
" header contents to the filtering. My newsreader (slrn -- a unix only
newsreader, so you are out of luck with that one unless you are willing
to switch to linux or some other unix flavor for newsreading) allows
putting an "expire" time on blocks, either in number of days, or an
absoluted date, so I typically put between 30 days and 360 days
depending on how soon I expect something to die down -- or leave it up
forever.

I also find that the spamers who come in to sell shoes or
T-shirts, or other things (or services) are typically originating from
countries which are not contributing any valid discussion, so I also
block on the contents of the "NNTP-Posting-Host: " header, with
wildcarding to block a range of IP addresses.

So -- yes it can be done -- and it will require learning about
whatever newsreader you intend to use, as well as how to look up IP
addresses to see where they are from.

Good Luck,
DoN.

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