Re: Filters


On 12 Dec 2007 16:34:57 GMT 'Frank Slootweg'
wrote this on news.software.readers:

agent.v2.user <agent.v2.user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 12 Dec 2007 12:49:04 GMT 'Frank Slootweg'
wrote this on news.software.readers:
[...]

Are you suggesting that I should have created a new filter for that
*original* MID, by extracting the MID from the References header
of the 1st reply which I had pressed Ignore against? Such action
would only be useful *if* another poster then decided to post a
reply and change the Subject title as Mike Dee did on this occasion,
because all other regular replies would automatically have joined
the thread in my Ignored list and I would never see them.

Yes, that's what I'm suggesting. *You* consider this a problem. *This*
is a solution. As you yourself said, preventing someone from changing
the subject is not possible, so this is the only possible solution.

ok. But as I said, that's a totally impractical solution for the
reasons I previously stated. Clearly there is no practical solution.

So, how would I know that another poster might choose to post a
(2nd) reply to the *original* article and change the Subject title?
Obviously I would never know because I don't do mindreading.

Irrelevant. See above.

It gets worse...

There are literally hundreds of new posts each day on different
newsgroups which fall into the same category; if you also add in the
many hundreds of sporge articles in the same category, I'd spend
the rest of my life creating filters for the original MIDs on the
off-chance that someone might decide to post a reply to them and
may also decide to change the Subject title.

I think that's highly unlikely, hundreds of new threads where you have
pre-killed the OP, but not responses to such posts.

Whether it's unlikely or not is irrelevant, because to be sure that
my message list wasn't potentially filled with replies to
non-existant articles (lots of new threads starting with Re:), I'd
have to create a filter for each one of them (after tracking down
the MIDs from God-knows where), since I cannot predict which ones
might attract a reply.

In this example, I Ignored the 1st reply and never thought for one
moment that someone would reply again and change the Subject.

But of course in most cases, the MID isn't even available to me
because the original article has been dropped and there are no
replies. In any event, such action would mean that I'd never have
any time left to visit the bar for a beer or three ;-)

Even more unlikely, that the first response would be a subject change.

It maybe unlikely but it happened this time. It can happen again
.... and again. Like I said, I have no way of knowing which articles
might be replied to, so the only safe way is to create a filter for
every one after tracking down the MIDs. That makes it totally
impractical.

And worse...

My news client doesn't filter on the References header

Ah, *now* you get to the point! Your newsreader is *broken*########sub-
standard.

Nope. My news client is not broken. I know of no news client that
can intelligently filter out reply posts to miscellaneous articles
which don't even exist! It would have nothing to filter on.
Surely you can understand that?

and there
appears to be a working limit to the number of filters which can be
used in NewsProxy - IME ~100 before it has a complete meltdown
freakout. That would also impose a huge limitation on the strategy
because I'm already close to that upper limit.

So, instead of fighting windmills - i.e. trying to change what,
*according to your opinion*, people should not do - you should
concentrate on switching to software which is more up to scratch. After
all, that's what this group is all about, isn't it?

I agree that there is no sensible solution, except that people don't
change the Subject title when they post replies because of the
problem it causes to other people.

That takes us back to where we started.

And afaik there is no news client that can do what is needed.
You are welcome to prove me wrong but I bet you can't do that.

FYI, my newsreader has no problem whatsoever with your scenarios and
hasn't had for a decade or so.

Sorry, if you believe that then you don't understand the problem.
I apologise for assuming you did.
.

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