NZB Vortex

[Gary McGath]

NZB Vortex seems to be the most popular Usenet reader for the Mac, so I
blew $10 on it through the App store, hoping it would work better than
Thunderbird has lately.

After half an hour of fighting with it, I can't figure out how to access
a newsgroup with it. It's the reductio ad absurdem of burying
functionality in "features." I can optimize downloads, filter spam, set
up RSS feeds -- except I can't get at any newsgroups to do those things
with them.

Has anyone else used this software? Is the basic functionality buried in
plain sight somewhere?

Thunderbird with eternal-september (which I'm using right now) is still
being erratic, and I'm sure it's losing a lot of posts.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

[Torbjorn Lindgren]

Gary McGath <ga...@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
>NZB Vortex seems to be the most popular Usenet reader for the Mac, so I
>blew $10 on it through the App store, hoping it would work better than
>Thunderbird has lately.

From their own site it doesn't appear to BE a Usenet reader, it's a
"Usenet downloader" and specifically only does NZB downloads, these
contains a long list of message-id that it downloads from one or more
Usenet servers then combines to a binary download.

>After half an hour of fighting with it, I can't figure out how to access
>a newsgroup with it. It's the reductio ad absurdem of burying
>functionality in "features." I can optimize downloads, filter spam, set
>up RSS feeds -- except I can't get at any newsgroups to do those things
>with them.

None of that would be expected to be in a NZB-only file downloader
such as NZB Vortex.

>Has anyone else used this software? Is the basic functionality buried in
>plain sight somewhere?

I doubt it, the description seems pretty clear that it does NZB
downloads and nothing else.

>Thunderbird with eternal-september (which I'm using right now) is still
>being erratic, and I'm sure it's losing a lot of posts.

Eternal September has been unstable lately, I doubt switching
newsreader will help much.

They're migrating to a new server to fix the problem they've had,
reader.eternal-september.com. Their website is now back and mentions
that news.eternal-september.org will point to that as soon as the DNS
changes take place.

I'm using that since a couple of days and I have to say that for me
(trn4 on Linux) is mostly back to normal, a little slow now and then
but nothing like before.

The other option is to get an account elsewhere, there are a few other
cheap or free providers (most with their own gotchas).

[Gary McGath]

On 9/10/17 12:40 PM, Torbjorn Lindgren wrote:
> Gary McGath <ga...@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
>> NZB Vortex seems to be the most popular Usenet reader for the Mac, so I
>> blew $10 on it through the App store, hoping it would work better than
>> Thunderbird has lately.
>
> From their own site it doesn't appear to BE a Usenet reader, it's a
> "Usenet downloader" and specifically only does NZB downloads, these
> contains a long list of message-id that it downloads from one or more
> Usenet servers then combines to a binary download.

The description on the App Store doesn't say it's a Usenet reader, but
the top reviews refer to it as a "1-stop application to handle
everything Usenet" and "the standard app when installing a Mac and
searching newsgroups." I wasn't too confident, but there really isn't
anything that looks better on the App Store.

[Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy]

Gary McGath <ga...@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote in
news:op5poh$j0p$1...@dont-email.me:

> On 9/10/17 12:40 PM, Torbjorn Lindgren wrote:
>> Gary McGath <ga...@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
>>> NZB Vortex seems to be the most popular Usenet reader for the
>>> Mac, so I blew $10 on it through the App store, hoping it
>>> would work better than Thunderbird has lately.
>>
>> From their own site it doesn't appear to BE a Usenet reader,
>> it's a
>> "Usenet downloader" and specifically only does NZB downloads,
>> these contains a long list of message-id that it downloads from
>> one or more Usenet servers then combines to a binary download.
>
> The description on the App Store doesn't say it's a Usenet
> reader, but the top reviews refer to it as a "1-stop application
> to handle everything Usenet"

That does rather imply that it should perform traditional usenet
functions, like reading and replying to text posts. "Everything" is
pretty comprehensive.

--
Terry Austin

Vacation photos from Iceland:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/QaXQkB

"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

[Paul Rubin]

Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taus...@gmail.com> writes:
> That does rather imply that it should perform traditional usenet
> functions, like reading and replying to text posts. "Everything" is
> pretty comprehensive.

I think they have in mind stuff like pulling together binary downloads
that are split into large numbers of files using erasure codes. For
a certain population, Usenet is a sideways form of Bittorrent.

My favorite news reader is Gnus in Emacs. There's a Mac port of Emacs
that you can download for free.

[Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy]

Paul Rubin <no.e...@nospam.invalid> wrote in
news:87d16v9...@nightsong.com:

> Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taus...@gmail.com> writes:
>> That does rather imply that it should perform traditional
>> usenet functions, like reading and replying to text posts.
>> "Everything" is pretty comprehensive.
>
> I think they have in mind stuff like pulling together binary
> downloads that are split into large numbers of files using
> erasure codes. For a certain population, Usenet is a sideways
> form of Bittorrent.

No doubt. But it's sloppy, if not dishonest, marketing to call that
"everything usenet."

[Arthur T.]

In Message-ID:<XnsA7EF542A22D...@69.16.179.43>,

Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taus...@gmail.com> wrote:

>Paul Rubin <no.e...@nospam.invalid> wrote in
>news:87d16v9...@nightsong.com:
>
>> Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy <taus...@gmail.com> writes:
>>> That does rather imply that it should perform traditional
>>> usenet functions, like reading and replying to text posts.
>>> "Everything" is pretty comprehensive.
>>
>> I think they have in mind stuff like pulling together binary
>> downloads that are split into large numbers of files using
>> erasure codes. For a certain population, Usenet is a sideways
>> form of Bittorrent.
>
>No doubt. But it's sloppy, if not dishonest, marketing to call that
>"everything usenet."

As noted upthread, the site's own documentation says it's for
NZBs. It was a reviewer who said it was for "everything Usenet".

--
Arthur T. - ar23hur "at" pobox "dot" com