Questions (possibly newbie) &/or Feature Requests

[nc_usenet]

A Few questions/feature requests:

1)Can I filter (not download/save) headers based on Poster Name, Subject Filter, and Crosspost Filter?
The V5 FAQ discusses this (Filtering Headers during download), but only for Subject filters.

Questions related to Post tabs
2)Is there be a way to Sort on Multiple columns? ie: Sort on Poster Name then by Date
3)Alternatively, is there a quick way to filter based on Poster Name? I could then use the Filtered List& sort based on Date or Size, etc (I did see the V5 Tech Support post "Multi-column sorting possible?", but this does not help.)
[Additional Questions Deleted & posted separately]

Thanks

[DThor]

well, you didn't number your questions, so the answers will be a little hard to match up, but the ones I know about:

post tabs have a filter selector, you select filter, it filters, not related to downloading. Is that not what you mean?

You can sort on at least two columns, not sure about more than that. I often hit group and subject.

AFAIK the Thumbnails are the only way to 'sample' pictures, but since they're inevitably so small, you've already downloaded them. Sounds like what you want is that, but not saving to disk. Not likely to happen, but possible.

DT

[nc_usenet]

Thanks for the response - sorry for not using numbers:

[nc_usenet]

post tabs have a filter selector, you select filter, it filters, not related to downloading. Is that not what you mean?

No, I am looking for a way to Not download & Not save headers based on certain filters. As an example, I know several posters who spam thousands of posts. I do not want to take up disk space for, or see, these posts. The V5 FAQ shows a way to do this ("destructive filtering") for Subject, but not for Poster Name or based on number of crossposts.

You can sort on at least two columns, not sure about more than that. I often hit group and subject.

Before I posted I tried this and it does not seem to work. I select the 1st column, then hit Alt, then select a 2nd column - the 1st sort is lost. I also tried Shift & Ctrl. How do you get this to work?

AFAIK the Thumbnails are the only way to 'sample' pictures, but since they're inevitably so small, you've already downloaded them. Sounds like what you want is that, but not saving to disk. Not likely to happen, but possible.

Yes, that is what I am looking for. My previous newsreader had this capability and I used it all the time.

[DThor]

Ah yeah, I did mis-read. That's true, there's not currently a method to filter, say, poster before download the header itself.

A lot of your questions focus around snagging things but not saving anything to disk. It's not really a fundamental core feature of Newsbin, to do that. It assumes you went to the trouble of downloading it, you might want it. If you're thinking about this as far as some sort of security, I wouldn't bother. If it got read into memory, there's a chance it gets written out to your pagefile too. If you're merely talking about not wanting to clean things up, that's a valid point. There are new features in the works for v6(in beta) that should let you define file types you don't want extracted from rars, for example.

My answers to 2 and 4 stay the same. Just click on a column, one after the other. I haven't tried it for all combinations of columns, but the ones I use work. As far as not saving, memory use would rise considerably if Newsbin kept everything in memory until you choose to save it out or not, there would be cries of woe from on high, I fear.

To clarify, I'm just a user, not the developer. I'm not the final word.

DT

[nc_usenet]

1) My asking for a destructive filter is not based on security concerns. I do not want to manually clean-up thousands of headers from known spammers, or store junk headers for >2 years. Also, since the V5 FAQ indicates that the code is already available for destructive filtering based on Subject, maybe it could be "easily" extended to Poster, CrossPost#, etc.
Lastly, unless there was a change in V6 (or a later V5), it looks like I will have to do this clean-up multiple times:
From the Newbie Forum:

Re: why dont certain messages get permanently deleted
Postby dexter » Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:39 am
I just talked to Quade about this. Spam posts that are posted over and over get lumped together into one line, but when you delete it, only the most recent occurrence gets deleted from the spools. That's why they are gone when you do a Show Posts, but when you do Show All Posts older spam posts are still creeping in. The workaround would be to Show All Posts then delete, reload, delete, reload until they are gone. Pain in the ass I know. Thank the spammers.

2)Just to be clear about multiple column sort - I want to sort within a sort. So when you say you "hit group & subject", are you sure it is really keeping the group sort and then within each group, sorting by subject? I just tried this on one of my "Group of Groups" and it does Not work (the Group sort is not kept). In V5, according to Quade:

Re: Multi-column sorting possible?
Postby Quade » Mon Feb 07, 2011 11:49 pm
If you sort one, then sort the next column, the first column stays in the same order as much as possible.

[itimpi]

You need to sort on the secondary key first, and then the primary key.

[DThor]

Yeah the issue of dealing with spam and sporge is a biggie. The method of using poster name is dubious since increasingly sporgers are using a legitmate poster's name. It really is a non-trivial thing to deal with, that's why sporge is a pain in the ass. It's designed to be, just like email spam. Anyway, the Newsbin guys are very aware of the issue.

I'm a little confused since you're posting in the v6 forum but you keep referencing the v5 FAQ. Lots of things have changed.

DT

[Quade]

Re: why dont certain messages get permanently deleted
Postby dexter » Tue Oct 26, 2010 11:39 am
I just talked to Quade about this. Spam posts that are posted over and over get lumped together into one line, but when you delete it, only the most recent occurrence gets deleted from the spools. That's why they are gone when you do a Show Posts, but when you do Show All Posts older spam posts are still creeping in. The workaround would be to Show All Posts then delete, reload, delete, reload until they are gone. Pain in the ass I know. Thank the spammers.

Only applies to 5.59, 6 doesn't have this issue.

[nc_usenet]

Yeah the issue of dealing with spam and sporge is a biggie. The method of using poster name is dubious since increasingly sporgers are using a legitmate poster's name.

DThor: Good point - but if there was a crosspost destructive filter seems like most of the junk would not get through. It's getting ridiculous - it almost looks like a deliberate attempt by "someone" to kill usenet. Sorry for referencing the V5 info. Before I post I search the forums & look for similar items - as you point out, using V5 as a reference is not a good idea.

Only applies to 5.59, 6 doesn't have this issue.

Quade: Good to know - doing multiple cleanups did not sound like a fun thing to do

So my question is: Will V6 have destructive filters for Poster Name, Subject Filter, #Crossposts and/or other ways to help "solve" this problem?

[Quade]

I can put it on the list. As D pointed out, it's almost useless though unless you don't mind tossing out the good files with the bad.

[nc_usenet]

If you think that a combination of Poster Name and Crosspost# destructive filters are not going to help, then forget about it. I am really frustrated with having to wade through thousands of spam headers, and (based on my limited knowledge) combining these two destructive filters (perhaps in conjunction with a subject) seemed like a way to help with the problem. In the newgroups that I look at, the spammers seem to use the same name, or change the name, more so than "sporging".
I appreciate the response.

[Quade]

I find that a size filter kills most of the spam.

[DThor]

I personally like to delete all posts from poster, since it's not all-encompassing(not deleting everything from that poster name in perpetuity - a bad idea) and a typical scenario is some jerk posting a swath in the time frame I've loaded, so one right click later, they're mostly gone, out of my hair at least. Of course this isn't as useful if you peruse massive groups filled with crap once a month.
I have it setup as a custom key equivalent, even faster.

DT

[nc_usenet]

I have it setup as a custom key equivalent, even faster.

Sounds interesting, but not sure what you mean. Could you elaborate?

[DThor]

V6 has custom key mapping, under View/Customize/Keyboard.

Now , it just so happens that after posting this I discovered that particular command isn't working in the latest release(it was) as a key equiv, but it will get fixed. I'm also going to request that delete all posts from poster respect the confirmation for dialogs for 'delete posts', so that you will hopefully be able to select a bad post, hit your key equiv, and that's it, they're all gone.

DT

[nc_usenet]

V6 has custom key mapping, under View/Customize/Keyboard.
Now , it just so happens that after posting this I discovered that particular command isn't working in the latest release(it was) as a key equiv, but it will get fixed. I'm also going to request that delete all posts from poster respect the confirmation for dialogs for 'delete posts', so that you will hopefully be able to select a bad post, hit your key equiv, and that's it, they're all gone.
DT

Ah, I get it - great idea! I thought I could partially use your idea by right-click on the post & selecting "Delete All Posts from Poster", but that does not seem to be working for me at all.

[DThor]

Well, that does work for me, but I don't know which release you're running. That will do what it says, but be aware it only acts on loaded posts. It doesn't dig through your spools on disk and vacuum, for the reasons I've already mentioned.

DT