Does Mortar Mix go bad with age?

[SpamFree]

A couple of days ago I used some Mortar Mix (Sakrete or Quikcrete or
similar) liberally dosed with Acryl 60 to parge the front of my house
and repair some broken-out between-the-bricks mortar. The repairs are
just now getting hard to the point where I can rub the surface and not
rub off the mortar. Further the result seems excessively "sandy"
although the mix looked normal. Whether this affects the final quality
of the repairs remains to be seen.

The (opened) bag I used was at least five years old (maybe even ten)
but the contents, although not flowing like...oh, flour...had only a
few lumps which were easily broken up in the mixing process. I've used
similarly old concrete mix without any problem but I wonder if there's
something unique to mortar mix that causes a problem with age. Unlike
shellac (for ex.) there's nothing on the container to indicate a
useful life. I'm sure if asked the mfg would blame the consumer so
that's pretty pointless.

Has anyone had a similar problem?

[Mark & Mary Ann Weiss]

Yes, mortar mix does go bad. I had an experience with some 20+ year old
mortar mix. Looked good in the bag, had never gotten wet, but it never
hardened properly and crumbled after drying, causing me to need to redo the
whole project.

--
Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

VIDEO PRODUCTION . FILM SCANNING . DVD MASTERING . AUDIO RESTORATION
Hear my Kurzweil Creations at: http://www.dv-clips.com/theater.htm
Business sites at:
www.dv-clips.com
www.mwcomms.com
www.adventuresinanimemusic.com
-

[Joseph Meehan]

It sure will. It picks up moisture from the air. If you could seal it
100% you would be OK, but that is not likely.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

[m Ransley]

Sure it goes bad, it partialy cured in the bag and may have no strength.
The portland cement is what cures with moisture. If its no good in a few
weeks redo it.

[davefr]

Yes, sacked goods should be tossed if not used up within a few months.

SpamFree <You-dLi...@HorribleISP.gov> wrote in message news:<7hcbo09r0lhut52fr...@4ax.com>...

[Childfree Scott]

I imagine that mortat mix might last quite a while if you stored it in
your refrigeratore or some other place that moisture can't get to it.
Otherwise yes it goes bad.

[davefr]

Try it out with your wife and let us know what happens!!

scott...@my-deja.com (Childfree Scott) wrote in message news:<2076f9e7.04110...@posting.google.com>...

[Hagrinas Mivali]

SpamFree wrote:
> A couple of days ago I used some Mortar Mix (Sakrete or Quikcrete or
> similar) liberally dosed with Acryl 60 to parge the front of my house
> and repair some broken-out between-the-bricks mortar. The repairs are
> just now getting hard to the point where I can rub the surface and not
> rub off the mortar. Further the result seems excessively "sandy"
> although the mix looked normal. Whether this affects the final quality
> of the repairs remains to be seen.
>

[snip]

> Has anyone had a similar problem?

No, but I was once hit by a fully loaded Mack truck that was hauling
Sakrete. It totaled the vehicle I was in, which is not hard for a Mack
truck to do.

I'll never use the stuff again.

[J. EARL]

replying to m Ransley, J. EARL wrote:
IT CERTAINLY DOES GO BAD. Wish I had read these comments earlier. Have had
two projects go bad from failure to toss unused mortar. I live in a very
humid climate. *_*IS THERE ANY WAY TO TELL THAT IT'S GONE BAD BEFORE ITS
APPLICATION ?? *_*

--
for full context, visit http://www.homeownershub.com/maintenance/does-mortar-mix-go-bad-with-age-564038-.htm

[Uncle Monster]

On Friday, July 29, 2016 at 7:44:05 AM UTC-5, J. EARL wrote:
> replying to m Ransley, J. EARL wrote:
> IT CERTAINLY DOES GO BAD. Wish I had read these comments earlier. Have had
> two projects go bad from failure to toss unused mortar. I live in a very
> humid climate. *_*IS THERE ANY WAY TO TELL THAT IT'S GONE BAD BEFORE ITS
> APPLICATION ?? *_*
> --
>

Especially if you wait 12 years. m Ransley was tragically killed 11 years ago when a shelf full of mortar fell over on him. He is survived by a wife, 12 children and 345 gerbils. The gerbils really miss him. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Sad Monster

[DerbyDad03]

On Friday, July 29, 2016 at 8:44:05 AM UTC-4, J. EARL wrote:
> replying to m Ransley, J. EARL wrote:
> IT CERTAINLY DOES GO BAD. Wish I had read these comments earlier. Have had
> two projects go bad from failure to toss unused mortar. I live in a very
> humid climate. *_*IS THERE ANY WAY TO TELL THAT IT'S GONE BAD BEFORE ITS
> APPLICATION ?? *_*
>

What? I can't hear you. You'll have to shout a little louder.

Maybe you should use more all caps, more asterisks and more punctuation
emphasis to make sure we understand what you are saying.

[Mayayana]

| What? I can't hear you. You'll have to shout a little louder.
|
| Maybe you should use more all caps, more asterisks and more punctuation
| emphasis to make sure we understand what you are saying.
|

I wish there were a way to block this homeownershub
spam. I wonder how many of the posters are even real.
In any case, it keeps getting worse. I've taken to just
ignoring all original posts I see that start with Re:, assuming
them to be either homeownershub or originating from a
poster who I've blocked.

[bob_villain]

You have a thing about gerbils...do you pull them out of your ass? (The gerbil thing is getting quite old!)

[DerbyDad03]

Well, I don't know if it can be called spam, but I agree that most of the
posts are annoying.

There seems to be 2 types of homeownershub posts:

1 - Those that appear to be direct responses to very old posts, as if the
post was made yesterday. i.e. no indication that the responder noticed
that the date of the last post was Feb 06, 2006. Those are the most
annoying.

2 - Those that appear to be "I searched for a topic, found this 10 year
old thread and was wondering if a solution was ever found." i.e. they know
it's an old thread, but they are now experiencing the original issue.

While the 2nd type may be annoying, they are at least "legitimate" in that
the responder is actually looking for help. The annoying part is that the
odds of the original poster still following that thread is minuscule at best.

I participate in a few forums where old threads are resurrected on a
consistent basis. It is the norm and it is expected. Members are "reminded"
to search the archives for threads related to their issue and if the
answer isn't in that thread, feel free to continue the thread, adding
any new information or questions that apply. "My tranmission is shuttering
at 60 MPH. I've followed all the advice in this thread and none of it has
helped. Is there anything else that I can try?"

That saves the constant re-hashing of old information that we often see
in usenet when new threads on old subjects are started.

One fun part of these old threads is that sometimes we get a chance
to read stuff that we wrote 10+ years ago. ;-) There have been times when
I didn't even recognize the title of the thread, only to scroll through
it and see that I was a major participant. It's obvious that these old
threads originated in usenet and were gathered up by homeownershub,
because many of the recognizable participants, like myself, were never
homeownershub subscribers.

[DerbyDad03]

According to the 2012 US census, there are 234,000 households with an
average of 2 gerbils per. That's close to half a million gerbils bringing
happiness to families everywhere.

Our resident Uncle is simply in tune with the pet population of our great
country and realizes that what impacts our pets, impacts our quality of
life in general.

Depressed gerbils can't be a comfort to a depressed child, so it is
imperative that we all help to raise the awareness of the plight of our
furry companions.

Donations can be sent to the American Gerbil Society.

http://www.agsgerbils.org/

Please refer to that site for a list of upcoming gerbil shows in your area.

Your participation is appreciated.

[gfre...@aol.com]

On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 08:43:28 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
<teama...@eznet.net> wrote:


>There seems to be 2 types of homeownershub posts:
>

I have never used it but maybe it is easier to jump on an old post
than it is to start a new one there.

[Mayayana]

| It's obvious that these old
| threads originated in usenet and were gathered up by homeownershub,
| because many of the recognizable participants, like myself, were never
| homeownershub subscribers.

Yes. They're parasite websites that gather usenet
posts as content. Not so terrible, except that they
make it hard for people to discover usenet. (I've also
come across my own posts in searches, reprinted by
sites that list me as an unregistered user or non-member.)

I call this particular one a spammer
because they seem to be trying to lure usenet
people to their site. Numerous posts are showing up
with a link at the bottom to get the full thread at
homeownershub. I see no reason to think the posters
are doing this. If they even knew about usenet
they probably wouldn't be posting at homeownershub.
That leads me to conclude that people at homeownershub
may or may not be making up these posts, but *are*
spamming usenet with them as advertising, by cross
posting to usenet and adding the link.

Unfortunately, my reader is not capable of blocking
based on message content. It it were I'd set it to
block all messages containg "homeownershub".

[FromTheRafters]

Mayayana laid this down on his screen :

Can your reader filter on the body? I notice they often have the URL as
a sig.

[Tekkie®]

Mayayana posted for all of us...

Use a filter in your newsreader in the sender category.

--
Tekkie

[FromTheRafters]

Mayayana pretended :

Ignore my previous post where I asked you this.

[DerbyDad03]

On Friday, July 29, 2016 at 12:24:22 PM UTC-4, Mayayana wrote:
> | It's obvious that these old
> | threads originated in usenet and were gathered up by homeownershub,
> | because many of the recognizable participants, like myself, were never
> | homeownershub subscribers.
>
> Yes. They're parasite websites that gather usenet
> posts as content. Not so terrible, except that they
> make it hard for people to discover usenet. (I've also
> come across my own posts in searches, reprinted by
> sites that list me as an unregistered user or non-member.)

What's left to discover? usenet has dwindled to a former shadow
of its old self and I seriously doubt that the "high tech" folks
of today would care for it if they found it. Heck, I'm an old fart
but even I wish I could bold text, add an image, and do some of
other stuff that web-based forums allow.

>
> I call this particular one a spammer
> because they seem to be trying to lure usenet
> people to their site. Numerous posts are showing up
> with a link at the bottom to get the full thread at
> homeownershub.

Sent from my iPhone ;-)

> I see no reason to think the posters
> are doing this. If they even knew about usenet
> they probably wouldn't be posting at homeownershub.

I don't necessarily agree, as per my comments above.

Now, please don't tell me to run off and join homeownershub.
I do use a web based forums for many things, but there are
couple of old-school ng's that I enjoy, such as a.h.r.

> That leads me to conclude that people at homeownershub
> may or may not be making up these posts, but *are*
> spamming usenet with them as advertising, by cross
> posting to usenet and adding the link.

That makes sense.

>
> Unfortunately, my reader is not capable of blocking
> based on message content. It it were I'd set it to
> block all messages containg "homeownershub".

That too.

One thing that I have found is that it is fairly easy to tell
which threads have been revived via homeownershub without even
opening them. When a thread shows up with an unfamiliar (to me)
subject line, 27 read posts and only 1 or 2 unread posts, I can be
pretty sure that it's a homeownershub cross-post.

[Tony944]

"YES"

"FromTheRafters" wrote in message news:nng74o$dso$1...@news.albasani.net...

[Mayayana]

| > I wish there were a way to block this homeownershub
| > spam. I wonder how many of the posters are even real.
| > In any case, it keeps getting worse. I've taken to just
| > ignoring all original posts I see that start with Re:, assuming
| > them to be either homeownershub or originating from a
| > poster who I've blocked.
|
| Can your reader filter on the body? I notice they often have the URL as
| a sig.

That's what I was thinking, but for some reason
I can't filter newsgroups in the ways that I can
filter email.

[Uncle Monster]

It came out of your mind so I caught you. You have revealed you sexual predilections. You fell into the Queer trap. I've already told you that it's OK for you to be homosexual. I don't share your lifestyle so I won't hold it against you. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Straight Monster

[Uncle Monster]

You see there. People love gerbils in many different ways. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Pet Monster

[Paint...@unlisted.moo]

On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 20:05:09 -0400, "Mayayana" <maya...@invalid.nospam>
wrote:

Add this to your filters
(no quotes)
"caedfaa9ed1216d60ef78a6f660f5f85"

That gets rid of all of them from Homeowners Hub.
Unfortunately people keep replying to them, so we end up seeing the
replies anyhow.... I dont reply to them, if I know they are from the "H
Hub".

The way I see it, this newsgroup as well as all of usenet is about dead.
There is little worth reading on here anymore. I'm now deleting 95% of
the posts on here, (either with filters or manually). It's not worth my
time anymore coming on here.

And since I find the web has been taken over by facebook, I'm wasting my
money paying for internet service. I cant even use Craigslist anymore
since they put on those captcha things, which require a fast internet
connection and all sorts of flash crap. I already decided that at the
end of August, I'm canceling my internet service. The only reason I am
keeping it another month is for email. By that time, I'll get a newer
cellphone so I can do my email on the phone. (My old phone cant do it).

I saw the end of usenet coming over a year ago. But did not expect the
web to also die, which it has. From the early 90's till now, the
internet was a great and useful tool, but it's gone the same way as the
CB radio died in the early 80s. The internet was bound to fail, and it's
happened. All it is now is a place for mindless morons to chatter their
mindless bullshit on facebook, or troll usenet. The net no longer serves
any real purpose.

I wish there was a way to just get email on a computer without having a
full internet service, but I guess the only way is on a cellphone now.
That's ok, but I find it real hard to type on a phone. But I'll learn to
live with it, and just make my emails short, and spend more time calling
people instead. Heck, I might even go back to getting the newspaper and
mailing real letters to friends and relatives.

[Muggles]

The internet and Usenet isn't dead - it's just changing. If you get
email on your smart phone, you'll need the internet to get email.
You'll still be able to access Usenet via your phone, and anything on
the internet on your phone.

--
Maggie

[DerbyDad03]

How does one not know that the internet is required for email to happen?

Wait until they tell him that he has to pay for data in order to get email. That might be fun to
listen in on.

P: I have to pay for data? What data? I just want email.
C: Yes sir, I know, but email requires that data be sent to your phone.
P: How does it get to my phone?
C: Either wirelessly from an internet router or from the cell tower.
P: Well, the internet is dead, so I only want the data from the cell tower.
C: Sir, you do know that the data travels on the internet before it gets to the tower, right?
P: That can't be right. The internet is dead. Just sent my email from the tower and we'll be all set.

[gfre...@aol.com]

On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 22:08:05 -0400, Paint...@unlisted.moo wrote:

>I wish there was a way to just get email on a computer without having a
>full internet service,

If all you want is text, email and usenet, get an old copy of Agent
and use dial up. I barely notice when my system has dialed in because
the broadband was down and I am reading my mail or usenet. It is when
I get a picture or something that it just crawls. At V.34 speeds text
just flies. At V.90 even pictures are tolerable.

[FromTheRafters]

Paint...@unlisted.moo formulated the question :

> On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 20:05:09 -0400, "Mayayana" <maya...@invalid.nospam>
> wrote:
>
>>>> I wish there were a way to block this homeownershub
>>>> spam. I wonder how many of the posters are even real.
>>>> In any case, it keeps getting worse. I've taken to just
>>>> ignoring all original posts I see that start with Re:, assuming
>>>> them to be either homeownershub or originating from a
>>>> poster who I've blocked.
>>>
>>> Can your reader filter on the body? I notice they often have the URL as
>>> a sig.
>>
>> That's what I was thinking, but for some reason
>> I can't filter newsgroups in the ways that I can
>> filter email.
>>
>
> Add this to your filters
> (no quotes)
> "caedfaa9ed1216d60ef78a6f660f5f85"

Outlook Express probably doesn't do that either.

[Mayayana]

| > Add this to your filters
| > (no quotes)
| > "caedfaa9ed1216d60ef78a6f660f5f85"
|
| Outlook Express probably doesn't do that either.

It does. I can block be sender in newsgroups.
(Thankfully, though this is the only group where
I've ever needed to.) But I assumed that a
long, random character list is used as a way to
make sure every post comes from a different
source. I see now, though, looking at
some of them, that the first part is always the
same, at least recently. So I'll try that. I suppose
I could also block "example.com", but I wonder
if some people might use that.

[FromTheRafters]

on 7/30/2016, Mayayana supposed :

You may find that the ones with the Posting Host encoded, the leading
characters, when B64 decoded, come out as Salted_ or something like
that. Of course that means the rest is useless for filtering on. The
Posting Account one changes for each post (for anti-tracking purposes)
and is also useless. NewsProxy gives more ability to filter if you find
you have to go that route. Some 'other' newsreaders offer filters using
RegEx.

Anyway, good luck.

[Muggles]

> How does one not know that the internet is required for email to happen?
>
> Wait until they tell him that he has to pay for data in order to get email. That might be fun to
> listen in on.
>
> P: I have to pay for data? What data? I just want email.
> C: Yes sir, I know, but email requires that data be sent to your phone.
> P: How does it get to my phone?
> C: Either wirelessly from an internet router or from the cell tower.
> P: Well, the internet is dead, so I only want the data from the cell tower.
> C: Sir, you do know that the data travels on the internet before it gets to the tower, right?
> P: That can't be right. The internet is dead. Just sent my email from the tower and we'll be all set.
>

I remember my first pc. I didn't know anything about them and thought
the keyboard had something to do with being the C drive! ;-)

--
Maggie

[burfordTjustice]

There are a lot of useless word walls to read,eh?

[Nil]

On 29 Jul 2016, "Tony944" <to...@seput.com> wrote in alt.home.repair:

> Can your reader filter on the body? I notice they often have the
> URL as a sig.

Most newsreaders that can do even basic filtering can do it on Message-
ID. That's effective in this case - just filter out all messages that
have "flashnewsgroups" in the M-ID.

[FromTheRafters]

Nil submitted this idea :

I noticed as Mayayana said the "Sender: " field has a first part before
the semicolon which seems not to change. Could be a non salted hash of
the posting host. Anything unique and stable should work.

[James Wilkinson]

Try using a killfile properly. Why are you seeing replies to people you've blocked?

--
Stress is the conflict which occurs when your mind prevents your body from beating the living daylights out of whoever got in your way.

[James Wilkinson]

Then use the same program for both.

--
Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."

[Diesel]

Muggles <coun...@2thenxtholi.day>
news:nnigil$ou3$1...@iw2shty99-unni1m0vs447.eternal-september.org Sat,

30 Jul 2016 15:19:53 GMT in alt.home.repair, wrote:

> I remember my first pc. I didn't know anything about them and
> thought the keyboard had something to do with being the C drive!
> ;-)

The C drive eh? [g]

You haven't changed that much... You still think you were a SysOp
despite the fact you don't know what a Node is, and couldn't tell me a
single line of a DOOR.SYS file if your life depended on it. As you've
*never* setup or actually ran a BBS of any kind. You tried to claim
that your web forum software was a BBS because it's author said it was
on the advertising material for it. Horse shit.

You were an IrcOp for MS, but, never have you been a SysOp. You insult
those of us who put the time in and paid all that money to ma bell for
the toll calls, multiple lines, etc. Not to mention the uber expensive
hardware that required you to get to know your gear, intimately. Before
the days of Windows 95, Muggles... long before.


--
MID: <nb7u27$crn$1...@boaterdave.dont-email.me>
Hmmm. I most certainly don't understand how I can access a copy of a
zip file but then not be able to unzip it so I can watch it. That
seems VERY clever!
http://al.howardknight.net/msgid.cgi?ID=145716711400

[Diesel]

gfre...@aol.com news:7taopb9ge9c7g9oag...@4ax.com

Granted, I loved my dialup days.. but, I'm in no rush to go back to
them. I do appreciate advancements in technology and broadband. I
think I'd find some way of making a wifi capable computer tether to
my cell phone and temp instruct said computer to take over routing
operations for the rest of the network to get the other computers
back online. It wouldn't be nearly as fast as my normal broadband,
but, it wouldn't be as slow as dialup, either.

I think I might have an easier time reconfiguring a wifi enabled
linux based laptop to tether to my phone and provide 'broadband' to
the rest of the network (I'd tie the routers WAN port into the
laptops LAN port) than I would getting one of the Windows machines to
do it.

[Nil]

On 30 Jul 2016, FromTheRafters <err...@nomail.afraid.org> wrote in
alt.home.repair:

> I noticed as Mayayana said the "Sender: " field has a first part
> before the semicolon which seems not to change. Could be a non
> salted hash of the posting host. Anything unique and stable should
> work.

The flaw with that is that "Sender" is not one of the standard overview
header fields that all newsreaders initially fetch (along with Subject,
From, Newsgroups, and a couple others.) Some but not all newsreaders
are able to go back and then request the server to supply other fields,
but that takes more time and computer power on both the server and
client end, and not all news servers allow it. If possible, it's better
to filter on the standard header fields if possible. That's why
checking Message-ID for the string "flashnewsgroups" is a good
candidate, and it will catch all these homeownershub doofuses.

[FromTheRafters]

Nil submitted this idea :

In this case I think "From: " has consistent strings, but only up to
the underscore character. RegEx support would be nice.

[Nil]

On 30 Jul 2016, FromTheRafters <err...@nomail.afraid.org> wrote in
alt.home.repair:

> In this case I think "From: " has consistent strings, but only up
> to the underscore character. RegEx support would be nice.

Yes, you're right - going back through mid-June, it appears that all
homeownershub From addresses start with
"caedfaa9ed1216d60ef78a6f660f5f85_" and end with "@example.com". I
don't know, but I suspect that that long string might change over time,
and I know the example.com domain is not exclusively theirs. I'd still
prefer to filter off the MID, since I'm confident that never changes,
but the long From string would be an OK choice if my newsreader
couldn't do the other. Maybe you'd have to alter it after while, but
that wouldn't be a major hardship.

[FromTheRafters]

Nil presented the following explanation :

Since it's web based, I suppose the MID isn't optionally end user
supplied like it is when one has a real newsreader. Looks like a good
choice.

[Paint...@unlisted.moo]

On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 22:24:54 -0500, Muggles <coun...@2thenxtholi.day>
wrote:

>>
>> I wish there was a way to just get email on a computer without having a
>> full internet service, but I guess the only way is on a cellphone now.
>> That's ok, but I find it real hard to type on a phone. But I'll learn to
>> live with it, and just make my emails short, and spend more time calling
>> people instead. Heck, I might even go back to getting the newspaper and
>> mailing real letters to friends and relatives.
>>
>>
>
>The internet and Usenet isn't dead - it's just changing. If you get
>email on your smart phone, you'll need the internet to get email.
>You'll still be able to access Usenet via your phone, and anything on
>the internet on your phone.
>
>--
>Maggie

The web might be "changing" as you say, but I dont know how you can say
that usenet is not dead (or real close to dead). There are thousands of
newsgroups and 99% of them have not had even one post in a year. The few
that are still used, (like this one), are rarely following the topic of
the group. alt.home.repair used to be about home repair. That's rare
these days, and the few that are on topic are usually reruns from
Homeowners Hub.

I dont have a smartphone. Just a basic flip phone that gets calls, txt,
and real basic internet. I can google for a picture, like "dog" and see
it. I can get weather reports and radar. It's supposed to get email. It
even has a place for yahoo, gmail, hotmail, but (for example), gmail
wont even let me connect. It whines about "not secure". If it does, why
the heck is that even offerred on the phone?

I dont want a smartphone, but maybe a newer flip phone will work, since
my phone is over 5 years old. It's just a prepaid tracfone and I dont
think they even offer smartphones. Not that I know of anyhow.

[Paint...@unlisted.moo]

On Sat, 30 Jul 2016 08:46:39 -0400, "Mayayana" <maya...@invalid.nospam>
wrote:

I've had that filter set for close to a year and it blocks all posts
from Homeowners Hub (except followups from other posters).

[Paint...@unlisted.moo]

That's all I use now.... 56K dialup!

[Muggles]

On 8/2/2016 2:54 AM, Paint...@unlisted.moo wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 22:24:54 -0500, Muggles <coun...@2thenxtholi.day>
> wrote:
>
>>>
>>> I wish there was a way to just get email on a computer without having a
>>> full internet service, but I guess the only way is on a cellphone now.
>>> That's ok, but I find it real hard to type on a phone. But I'll learn to
>>> live with it, and just make my emails short, and spend more time calling
>>> people instead. Heck, I might even go back to getting the newspaper and
>>> mailing real letters to friends and relatives.

>>
>> The internet and Usenet isn't dead - it's just changing. If you get
>> email on your smart phone, you'll need the internet to get email.
>> You'll still be able to access Usenet via your phone, and anything on
>> the internet on your phone.


>

> The web might be "changing" as you say, but I dont know how you can say
> that usenet is not dead (or real close to dead). There are thousands of
> newsgroups and 99% of them have not had even one post in a year. The few
> that are still used, (like this one), are rarely following the topic of
> the group. alt.home.repair used to be about home repair. That's rare
> these days, and the few that are on topic are usually reruns from
> Homeowners Hub.

If Usenet were dead all the newsgroups on the list wouldn't have any
activity. Things change, especially, newsgroups, and they changed based
on how people want to participate. Although this ngs name is
"home.repair", it still has one thing that we can't get away from, and
that's people. We aren't one dimensional. While we can come here and
have a forum about "home repair", those topics always morph into related
discussions that have nothing to do with "home repair". If we never
morphed like that, the group would be extremely boring and people would
leave and ONLY show up here when they had a question about home repair.
As it stands now this group is very active and dynamic, and it reflects
real people and what's on real people's minds. If I don't want to read
a thread because it's not about something I'm interested in, I ignore it
- easy.

>
> I dont have a smartphone. Just a basic flip phone that gets calls, txt,
> and real basic internet. I can google for a picture, like "dog" and see
> it. I can get weather reports and radar. It's supposed to get email. It
> even has a place for yahoo, gmail, hotmail, but (for example), gmail
> wont even let me connect. It whines about "not secure". If it does, why
> the heck is that even offerred on the phone?
>
> I dont want a smartphone, but maybe a newer flip phone will work, since
> my phone is over 5 years old. It's just a prepaid tracfone and I dont
> think they even offer smartphones. Not that I know of anyhow.

Well, don't get a smartphone if you don't want one.

FWIW, I like reading your posts even if I don't respond to all of them.
You've got a different perspective on everything, and as far as I'm
concerned it's good to be around people with different perspectives.


--
Maggie