Updated (25th March 2008)
The problem is the answer. It seems impossible for the current Readers to contextually filter and range through the content.
Gary announced the new version of Organise365 on the newsgroups recently, and it’s big feature is Newsgroups.
This got me thinking about Newsgroup Readers.
For the longest time, I used Outlook Express. That was because I didn’t know any better. But the search capabilities really, REALLY, got my goat.
I then tried Thunderbird for a while. There were some _slight_ searching improvements, but not really enough. I really wanted to use Thunderbird, mostly because it’s from Mozilla, who make the wonderful Firefox (soon to be better).
Since getting this beastie, I’ve been using Windows Mail. It’s okay, but really, the searching hasn’t gotten much better.
I’ve heard Windows Live Mail might be better, so I’m going to go ahead and try it out.
EDIT: (25th March 2008)
Windows Live Mail looks pretty good. Not only does the Newsgroup Reading functionality looked beefed up (you’ve got a "View All Posts" ability, which is cool), but it’s got an RSS Feed Reader also. This was mentioned in the Skype discussions, apologies.
What is the problem with Searching Newsgroups? And what is it that we want in this Searching?
The problem is the answer. It seems impossible for the current Readers to contextually filter and range through the content. When I type in "Two Bob’s Code", I want not only any "Bob"’s who have posted, not only any Subject lines with "Bob" in them, but I want any post with "Bob" in the body. And I want them shown to me grouped like that.
This is some complicated searching, granted .. but newsgroups are an important part of development, and other businesses I’m sure. It’d be worth it.
Google Mail seems to track email conversations in the same way the Newsgroups work. But I’d like my newsgroup reader to be better at allowing me to follow the flow of the conversation. When I view without Grouping (that is, for example, all posts in Date order without any Grouping) I’d like it to be far easier to slip into a Grouping, or to see it’s order not only by Date, but by the next in the Grouping.
Not much to ask for :).
Here’s my current conclusion:
If Google add Newsgroup support to GMail the world will tilt on it’s axis and I’ll be a happy little dev.
Question:
- What tool do you use for reading Newsgroups?
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13 responses so far ↓
1 Carl Sumner // Mar 24, 2008 at 8:02 am
The newsgroup readers are meant to be used Off-line, with the messages in the local files. Don’t delete the messages unless they are really just spam.
I use Fort’e Agent, which has a good global search function of the messages stored on your computer. I think most readers have search of the messages in local storage.
I have most messages since Clarion 4.0 on my computer.
As far as I know, news servers do not allow search of the server files. But that could have changed. And any one server probably does not have all of the messages anyway. They are dynamic.
2 Stu // Mar 24, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Carl,
Thanks for the comment. Sounds like you’ve got quite a nice history of messages there!
And thanks for the knowledge about news servers, helps fill my un-knowing-ness :).
3 Re-Tweeted - 73 Top Posts from the Last Week // Mar 25, 2008 at 6:35 pm
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4 Re-Tweeted - 73 Top Posts from the Last Week | Amabanal Network // Mar 25, 2008 at 6:59 pm
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5 Mother of all money blogs » Blog Archive » Re-Tweeted - 73 Top Posts from the Last Week // Mar 25, 2008 at 10:25 pm
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6 When Tweets Collide // Mar 25, 2008 at 10:29 pm
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7 Re-Tweeted - 73 Top Posts from the Last Week // Mar 27, 2008 at 7:12 pm
[...] On ‘A New Earth’ Chapter 4 @cmiddlebrook – 6 Months in Business – How Am I Doing? @theunguru – What Tool Do You Use For Reading Newsgroups? @ianternet – I dont do any sort of video blogging @MartyJ – Query Types – Figuring out Keyword [...]
8 Re-Tweeted - 73 Top Posts from the Last Week : www.brand-forge.com // Mar 28, 2008 at 1:07 pm
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9 Re-Tweeted - 73 Top Posts from the Last Week — SEO Zeitgeist // Mar 30, 2008 at 4:02 pm
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10 Re-Tweeted - 73 Top Posts from the Last Week — SEO Zeitgeist // Mar 30, 2008 at 4:02 pm
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11 Re-Tweeted - 73 Top Posts from the Last Week | Just Good Thinking // Apr 3, 2008 at 4:03 pm
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12 Make Money Online » Re-Tweeted - 73 Top Posts from the Last Week // Apr 10, 2008 at 6:41 am
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13 blog.rotracker.net » Blog Archive » Re-Tweeted - 73 Top Posts from the Last Week // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:18 pm
[...] New Earth’ Chapter 4 @cmiddlebrook – 6 Months in Business – How Am I Doing? @theunguru – What Tool Do You Use For Reading Newsgroups? @ianternet – I dont do any sort of video blogging @MartyJ – Query Types – Figuring out Keyword [...]
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