google spam

[John Larkin]

Does anyone know the proper filter expression to kill all usenet posts
from google groups?

Thanks

John

[Ralph Fox]

A. In Agent 5.0 and later

message-id: googlegroups.com

See
[1] <http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/filters_ex4.html>
[2] <https://www.forteinc.com/release/notes.php?id=50>


B. For Agent 4.2 and earlier

See
[3] <http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/filters_ex2.html>
[4] The very recent thread "Any way to filter on Message-ID?",
which you can also find at:
<https://alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent.narkive.com/S1576RN5>
<https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=4581&group=alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent#4581>


--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊

Seek till you find, and you'll not lose your labour.

[pyotr filipivich]

John Larkin <jjla...@highlandtechnology.com> on Sat, 02 Dec 2023
17:53:32 -0800 typed in alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent the
following:

Unfortunately, below Agent 5, there is not a "good" way. I have
taken to marking read everything with a gmail.com address (and a
couple others.) "It works", but ... it is using a large hammer.
--
pyotr filipivich
This Week's Panel: Us & Them - Eliminating Them.
Next Month's Panel: Having eliminated the old Them(tm)
Selecting who insufficiently Woke(tm) as to serve as the new Them(tm)

[John Larkin]

On Sun, 03 Dec 2023 16:02:27 +1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
wrote:

>On Sat, 02 Dec 2023 17:53:32 -0800, John Larkin wrote:
>
>> Does anyone know the proper filter expression to kill all usenet posts
>> from google groups?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> John
>
>
>A. In Agent 5.0 and later
>
> message-id: googlegroups.com

Thanks, but I tried pasting that into a kill filter box and it didn't
approve of the command syntax. This is Agent 8.

[micky]

In alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent, on Sun, 03 Dec 2023 16:02:27

+1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> wrote:

>On Sat, 02 Dec 2023 17:53:32 -0800, John Larkin wrote:
>
>> Does anyone know the proper filter expression to kill all usenet posts
>> from google groups?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> John
>
>
>A. In Agent 5.0 and later
>
> message-id: googlegroups.com

Great!

> See
> [1] <http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/filters_ex4.html>
> [2] <https://www.forteinc.com/release/notes.php?id=50>

Okay.

[Ralph Fox]

It works here in Agent 8. No syntax errors here in Agent 8.

screen-shot: <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=27_2mgpmi_1__agent-8-kill-all-usenet-posts-from-google-groups.png>


> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 3.1/32.783

In the Agent 3.1 you are posting with, you will get an error.
Agent 3.1 does not support "message-id:" for Usenet filters.

screen-shot: <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=27_2mgpmi_2__agent-31-try-kill-all-usenet-posts-from-google-groups.png>

--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊

Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.

[micky]

In alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent, on Sun, 03 Dec 2023 10:04:27

It worked in agent 5, but I had to get rid of the blank spaces to the
left of message.

[John Larkin]

On Mon, 04 Dec 2023 08:21:42 +1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>

wrote:

>On Sun, 03 Dec 2023 10:04:27 -0800, John Larkin wrote:
>> On Sun, 03 Dec 2023 16:02:27 +1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
>> wrote:
>>> On Sat, 02 Dec 2023 17:53:32 -0800, John Larkin wrote:
>>>
>>>> Does anyone know the proper filter expression to kill all usenet posts
>>>> from google groups?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>
>>>
>>> A. In Agent 5.0 and later
>>>
>>> message-id: googlegroups.com
>>
>> Thanks, but I tried pasting that into a kill filter box and it didn't
>> approve of the command syntax. This is Agent 8.
>
>It works here in Agent 8. No syntax errors here in Agent 8.
>
> screen-shot: <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=27_2mgpmi_1__agent-8-kill-all-usenet-posts-from-google-groups.png>
>
>
>> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 3.1/32.783
>
>In the Agent 3.1 you are posting with, you will get an error.
>Agent 3.1 does not support "message-id:" for Usenet filters.
>
> screen-shot: <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=27_2mgpmi_2__agent-31-try-kill-all-usenet-posts-from-google-groups.png>

OK, that explains it. I'm up in the mountains on an old Win7 machine.
I can probably get that to work on my new Win11 machines and Agent 8.

After a month or two of pounding Win11 into some sort of usability at
work, we'll clone three more machines and I'll replace my computers at
home and in Truckee and have one spare.

My favorite ng, sci.electronics.design, is being buried in spam via
google. It's sufficiently varied that subject filters only help some.

I wish google or supernews would filter obvious spam.

Thanks. I'm an electrical engineer and I hate computers.

[John Larkin]

On Sun, 03 Dec 2023 07:54:39 -0800, pyotr filipivich
<ph...@mindspring.com> wrote:

>John Larkin <jjla...@highlandtechnology.com> on Sat, 02 Dec 2023
>17:53:32 -0800 typed in alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent the
>following:
>>Does anyone know the proper filter expression to kill all usenet posts
>>from google groups?
>>
>>Thanks
>>
>>John
>
> Unfortunately, below Agent 5, there is not a "good" way. I have
>taken to marking read everything with a gmail.com address (and a
>couple others.) "It works", but ... it is using a large hammer.

Yes, some actually useful posts come in from google, an they will be
lost if I nuke the spam. Tradeoff.

[mi...@invalid.com]

On Sun, 03 Dec 2023 22:38:16 -0500, micky <NONONO...@fmguy.com>
wrote:

>In alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent, on Sun, 03 Dec 2023 10:04:27
>-0800, John Larkin <jjla...@highlandtechnology.com> wrote:
>
>>On Sun, 03 Dec 2023 16:02:27 +1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>On Sat, 02 Dec 2023 17:53:32 -0800, John Larkin wrote:
>>>
>>>> Does anyone know the proper filter expression to kill all usenet posts
>>>> from google groups?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>>
>>>> John

I'm using Agent 1. 93. The only filter I've ever used to get rid of
Google posts is the simple: Author: Google. I've never seen a Google
post since. So what is it that I'm not understanding about why so many
people are having this Google filter problem?

[micky]

In alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent, on Mon, 04 Dec 2023 05:27:57

I dont' think many are having a problem, but in the android group, a
spammer has just started sending hundreds of posts a day, so one or two
people who never before needed to filter out googlegroups now want to.

[Paul S Person]

Some time back, a local news website was taken over by malware that
pretended to be from a well-known antivirus company.

Or maybe it /was/ from that company, but was simply overly aggressive.

It would pop up in another tab. It would take over the existing tab.
It pretended to be scanning the drive. God alone knows what it was
actually doing -- but after three or so Full Scans I think I can say
that it didn't implant anything.

I tried emailing the news organization, but I don't think that worked
very well, as I never got even a robo-response.

When Edge began using it's logo for the news organization's logo, I
deleted the Favorite. Which is too bad, but sometimes you just have to
cut your losses. Including useful Google posts, if that's the only way
to do it.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

[Ralph Fox]

On Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:50:10 -0800, John Larkin wrote:

> I wish google or supernews would filter obvious spam.

I understand Google groups has blocked posting to a few groups which
were previously badly affected (such as alt.comp.freeware).

Some of the text-only news servers are doing filtering.

I doubt that supernews or other big premium/binary news servers will
do any filtering. They do no filtering in order to retain their
"common carrier" status. They need "common carrier" status to avoid
being liable for copyvio carried on their servers.

--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊

To avoid suspicion, crafty thieves steal far from home.

[Arthur T.]

In Message-ID:<6q9smipdd71ciq75j...@4ax.com>,

Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> wrote:

>To avoid suspicion, crafty thieves steal far from home.

I'm not sure where it's from, but:
Serial killers behave like bees. They commit crimes close to home,
but far enough that neighbors don't get suspicious. Similarly, bees
collect pollen near the hive, but far enough that predators can't
find them. Scientists studied bee behavior and found algorithms now
used to catch felons.

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

[micky]

In alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent, on Mon, 04 Dec 2023 17:53:29

Wow.

[Ralph Fox]

I have a couple of others like it for sigs:

Rabbits do not eat the grass around their burrows.

The fox preys farthest from his hole.

--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊

Great spenders are bad lenders.

[micky]

In alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent, on Tue, 05 Dec 2023 15:26:10

+1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> wrote:

Not the same thing, but leaf-cutter ants don't eat too many leaves from
any one tree, probably because that would kill it. So they have to
farther on average for their leaves. My rooommate noticed this when he
was watching them in Costa Rica in 1966.

[pyotr filipivich]

John Larkin <jjla...@highlandtechnology.com> on Mon, 04 Dec 2023
00:52:57 -0800 typed in alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent the

following:
>On Sun, 03 Dec 2023 07:54:39 -0800, pyotr filipivich
><ph...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>>John Larkin <jjla...@highlandtechnology.com> on Sat, 02 Dec 2023
>>17:53:32 -0800 typed in alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent the
>>following:
>>>Does anyone know the proper filter expression to kill all usenet posts
>>>from google groups?
>>>
>>>Thanks
>>>
>>>John
>>
>> Unfortunately, below Agent 5, there is not a "good" way. I have
>>taken to marking read everything with a gmail.com address (and a
>>couple others.) "It works", but ... it is using a large hammer.
>
>Yes, some actually useful posts come in from google, an they will be
>lost if I nuke the spam. Tradeoff.

Which is why I only mark them Read. But ... fnord.

[Ralph Fox]

You can whitelist useful Google Groups posters by creating a
higher-priority filter for them in Agent. That is, higher priority
than the filter to kill posts from Google groups.

The one catch is that you have to know who to whitelist. Which means
that any new posters from Google Groups will still be filtered out.

--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊

Long absent soon forgotten.

[john larkin]

On Tue, 05 Dec 2023 08:23:53 +1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
wrote:

>On Mon, 04 Dec 2023 00:50:10 -0800, John Larkin wrote:
>
>> I wish google or supernews would filter obvious spam.
>
>I understand Google groups has blocked posting to a few groups which
>were previously badly affected (such as alt.comp.freeware).
>
>Some of the text-only news servers are doing filtering.
>
>I doubt that supernews or other big premium/binary news servers will
>do any filtering. They do no filtering in order to retain their
>"common carrier" status. They need "common carrier" status to avoid
>being liable for copyvio carried on their servers.

Your suggested filter string works in Agent 8, kills the masses of
googlespam posts, but also kills some decent poster people. Too many
people use google groups.

So, to get more free consulting, is there a way to op-in a few
specific people? Some other programs filter with the option to execute
this filter and end filtering... something like that might work.

[Rich Ulrich]

On Wed, 06 Dec 2023 07:39:32 +1300, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
wrote:

I've used a variety of whitelist for screening.

Use the whitelist to specify which BODIES will be downloaded, with
the others present as Unread. That leaves them (relatively) easy
to spot and mark as Read, especially if they are not in a Thread
already has interesting posts. New names might be discovered
that way, or from dialogs with people on the whitelist.

For all groups, I've always had the stipulation that I only see the
header for any post with over 500 lines -- I remember some lengthy
spams from olden days.

--
Rich Ulrich

[micky]

In alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent, on Tue, 05 Dec 2023 12:51:38

I read somewhwere, here or the android group (which is the one I know of
that's under attack now) that Agent had so-called "white" lists. Maybe
AGent Help or Google will say how to use them. (Personally I don't like
examples where white is good and black is bad (including the word
denigrate) There are too many and almost none of the opposite. I think
it has a subliminal effect on people that carries over to their view of
people.)

[Ralph Fox]

On Tue, 05 Dec 2023 12:51:38 -0800, john larkin wrote:
>
> Your suggested filter string works in Agent 8, kills the masses of
> googlespam posts, but also kills some decent poster people. Too many
> people use google groups.
>
> So, to get more free consulting, is there a way to op-in a few
> specific people? Some other programs filter with the option to execute
> this filter and end filtering... something like that might work.

There are two ways to whitelist specific people so the filter does
not kill them.

1. Use boolean operators (and parentheses) in the kill filter expression,
similar to this:

message-id: googlegroups.com and not from: ( <alfabra...@gmail.conn> or <charlied...@gmail.conn> or <yankeez...@gmail.conn> )

See: Help >> Index >> Filters, Message Filters >> Agent's Expression Language >> Operators in Expressions

* If there are a lot of decent posters to whitelist, #1 can
become unwieldy.
* If there are a lot of different kill filters that need the
decent posters to be whitelisted, #1 can become unwieldy.
* In either of these cases, use #2 below instead.


2. If your kill filter has a priority of (say) 400, create a watch filter
for each whitelisted poster with a *higher* priority (say 600).
For example:

2.1 a kill filter

message-id: googlegroups.com
priority = 400

2.2 three watch filters

from: <alfabra...@gmail.conn>
priority = 600

from: <charlied...@gmail.conn>
priority = 600

from: <yankeez...@gmail.conn>
priority = 600

Agent only applies one filter's actions to a post.
If two filters match a post, the higher-priority filter's action is
applied and the lower-priority filter's action is not applied.

See: Help >> Index >> Filters, Message Filters >> How to Create Message Filters

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUOTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Usenet and email message filters consist of the following components:
        ...
     *  A priority between 0 (lowest) and 1000 (highest). Filters are
        evaluated in priority order. If more than one filter matches a
        message, the highest priority filter's action is performed.
        ...
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUOTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊

Save a thief from the gallows, and he'll be the first shall cut your throat.

[John]

On Mon, 04 Dec 2023 21:40:06 -0500, micky <NONONO...@fmguy.com>
wrote:

Whereas and in stark contrast to the intelligence of ants, the
self-styled smartest critters ever to exist on the planet will start
hunting right at their own front doors only to extend their hunts when
other beasties get wary enough of the humans' home-grounds to start
walking around them and will wipe out every fish in the Ocean without
a single thought of next year's profits.

Homo "Sapiens".

J.


P.S. there used to be an argument that the Neanderthals were smarter
but H.Sap.Sap. out-meaned them but that can never be proven. So far,
no one has found a way to I.Q. test a Neanderthal. Nor, for whatever
it would be worth, a politician.

[micky]

In alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent, on Thu, 07 Dec 2023 22:09:54

+0000, John <M...@the.keyboard> wrote:

>
>
>P.S. there used to be an argument that the Neanderthals were smarter
>but H.Sap.Sap. out-meaned them but that can never be proven. So far,
>no one has found a way to I.Q. test a Neanderthal. Nor, for whatever
>it would be worth, a politician.

Well, my girlfriend's brother was a neanderhthal but I don't think he
would have taken a test.

[pyotr filipivich]

For reasons unknown, I can't post to a lot of groups because While I
can download the headers,, they're not in the newsgroups listing.

GOB <G...@Idontcare.com> on Thu, 30 Nov 2023 23:41:51 GMT typed in
alt.binaries.e-book.flood the following:
>Casper <cas...@ghostmail.cc> wrote in
>news:jsahmit2vj6a057ml...@4ax.com:
>
>> What's with all the Spam posts?
>> More each day. Today is was over 85,000.
>> Happening in more groups too.
>> Is there a way to filter the random variables?
>I use xNews as a reader and these are the lines I have in my score filter
>file and none of the spam posts are showing in my news reader. Hope this
>may help.
>GOB
> Score:: -9999
>
> Subject: ^[a-z\d]{15}
> Subject: \[.{5,5}\]
> Subject: ^(?:[a-zA-Z0-9\-\_\,]){15,20}

As we used to say "Can I get an interpretation?"

I tried copying these into Agent, but I think the {} brackets are
causing a syntax error.
If you could tell what they are supposed to be doing, that might
help. E.G the first one I got to work was:
Subject: {^[a-z\d]}
which I read as "at the beginning of line, match any alpha char a to
z, and any digit."
It works for the most part.
{I had to look up \d. and now I think I know what the {15} in the
original part was.) The second and third filters, my system tells me
the syntax is invalid.


Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> on Sun, 03 Dec 2023 16:02:27 +1300 typed
in alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent the following:

>On Sat, 02 Dec 2023 17:53:32 -0800, John Larkin wrote:
>
>> Does anyone know the proper filter expression to kill all usenet posts
>> from google groups?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> John
>
>
>A. In Agent 5.0 and later
>
> message-id: googlegroups.com
>
> See
> [1] <http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/filters_ex4.html>
> [2] <https://www.forteinc.com/release/notes.php?id=50>
>
>
>B. For Agent 4.2 and earlier
>
> See
> [3] <http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/filters_ex2.html>
> [4] The very recent thread "Any way to filter on Message-ID?",
> which you can also find at:
> <https://alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent.narkive.com/S1576RN5>
> <https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=4581&group=alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent#4581>
--

[Arthur T.]

In Message-ID:<6lmjnitr33lmofn1t...@4ax.com>,

pyotr filipivich <ph...@mindspring.com> wrote:

>> Subject: ^[a-z\d]{15}
>> Subject: \[.{5,5}\]
>> Subject: ^(?:[a-zA-Z0-9\-\_\,]){15,20}
>
>As we used to say "Can I get an interpretation?"
>
>I tried copying these into Agent, but I think the {} brackets are
>causing a syntax error.

I can't tell you what they're supposed to do, but I can tell you
they're not written for Agent's implementation of Regular
Expressions.

The Expressions are Regular, but not Standard. Agent's is one of the
less full-featured variations of REs.

[pyotr filipivich]

Arthur T. <art...@munged.invalid> on Thu, 14 Dec 2023 17:18:58 -0500

typed in alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent the following:

>In Message-ID:<6lmjnitr33lmofn1t...@4ax.com>,
>pyotr filipivich <ph...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>>> Subject: ^[a-z\d]{15}
>>> Subject: \[.{5,5}\]
>>> Subject: ^(?:[a-zA-Z0-9\-\_\,]){15,20}
>>
>>As we used to say "Can I get an interpretation?"
>>
>>I tried copying these into Agent, but I think the {} brackets are
>>causing a syntax error.
>
>I can't tell you what they're supposed to do, but I can tell you
>they're not written for Agent's implementation of Regular
>Expressions.

I can't tell either. If I could figure what it is doing, I
_might_ be able to work around it.

>
>The Expressions are Regular, but not Standard. Agent's is one of the
>less full-featured variations of REs.

Agent can handle some RegEx, so I'm hopeful.

[Geoff]

See: https://regexr.com/ for a possible regex explainer tool.
Copy-paste your regex into the Expression field and hover your mouse
pointer over the elements to get descriptions of what the expression
element is doing.

An Agent message filter is not a regex-like filter until it is
enclosed in braces. Therefore you must write:
Subject: {^[a-z\d]{15}} in order for it to be a valid Agent regex.

The backslash '\' character is always an escape character, forcing
Agent to accept the character following the backslash as a literal
character, no substitution or interpretation is performed. So where a
special character like ^ or . is used within an Agent regex, you would
escape it first (e.g. \^ or \.).

Positional characters (^ and $) are only effective inside an Agent
regex so they must be inside braces when used.

Generally, avoid using regex in Agent except when conventional filters
can't be effective.

For example, the filter message-id: googlegroups.com should be
preferred over message-id: {googlegroups\.com} since it is faster and
does the job just as effectively as the regex version.

[Ralph Fox]

On Fri, 15 Dec 2023 12:16:57 -0800, Geoff wrote:

> An Agent message filter is not a regex-like filter until it is
> enclosed in braces. Therefore you must write:
> Subject: {^[a-z\d]{15}} in order for it to be a valid Agent regex.

Unfortunately this particular one will still _not_ be a valid Agent
regex even when enclosed in braces. Agent does not support the {15},
nor the \d.

> The backslash '\' character is always an escape character, forcing
> Agent to accept the character following the backslash as a literal
> character, no substitution or interpretation is performed.

For the '\d' in the example in question, the backslash '\' character
is meant to mean the 'd' is *not* a literal character.

For the meaning of '\d', see the very recent post "More Info On Agent
Filtering - Perl Regular Expression Tutorial". (But note that Perl
regular expressions do not work in Agent.)

--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊

So many countreys so many customes.