My name is Scott and I'm a r.j-aholic. I think that I've read about 95% of r.j posts over the past 15 or so years and I've posted well over 1000 messages as well.
So... I'm in the market for a new newsgroup reader. I've used proper newsreader software before but I use too many computers these days to make that useful. I've therefore spent the past couple days trying out different web solutions. I've pretty much only been using them so far to read and not post messages yet. Here are my initial findings:
www.jugglehub.com
Advantages:
* Hides spam.
* Embeds youtube videos.
* Categories are nice.
* Lets you expand/collapse within a thread (could be useful for very long threads which can be unweildy).
Disadvantages:
* Doesn't keep track of read/unread messages.
* Lets you change your email address per post (but does it remember it?).
* Opens to the first message in a thread instead of the most recent (related to not keeping track of read messages, I guess).
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/rec.juggling
Advantages:
* Automatically updates on the page when there are no posts so you don't have to refresh all the time.
* Hides spam.
Disadvantages:
www.jugglejunction.org/newsreader.php
Advantages:
* Uses the same infrastructure that IJDb used (though without all of the additions like siteswap animating).
* Tracks read/unread messages.
Disadvantages:
* Opens to the first message in a thread instead of the most recent.
* Spam that the other services hid/marked show up here.
ALL:
Advantages:
* All seem to update equally quickly when new messages arrive.
Disadvantages:
* None animage siteswaps like IJDb did.
Conclusion:
For now I like google groups. I know that the others are in early stages of development and I think that they have more potential for eventual juggler-specific features like animating siteswaps and such. I assume (hope) that many of my complaints will be dealt with in the near future and much of this post will be irrelevant soon. But hopefully it's enough information to help some others get started. (But how will they even find this message if they haven't already figured out some of that stuff?)
-Scott (still with a tear in his eye)