Google groups

[Jim Devenish]

I access this discussion via Google Groups:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/comp.databases.ms-access

I used to receive a daily email showing the latest activity but this has not worked for a few weeks now. I have set Abridged Email in the preferences but nothing happens.

I have also tried Digest Email but that is no more effective.

Do others have this problem? Or can you obtain daily updates?

[Bob Barrows]

I never received daily updates. This seems like something that should be
addressed to Google itself.

[Access Developer]

You are reading this newsgroup from the _archive_ at Google Groups. I
subscribe to news.individual.net, a news server that is reliable and
stable -- it does not include newsgroups with images, so isn't useful to the
crowd who're just interested in porn.

My news and mail reader, Outlook Express (which was free and included with
Internet Explorer versions for Windows XP and earlier) sets up a folder... I
can open that folder and read current posts... no e-mail involved. There are
other, well-recommended, news readers that work nicely with later versions
of Windows. Some are free (e.g., Forte Free Agent); some are fee (e.g. Forte
Agent); I don't use those, so you'd have to get details from someone else.

--
Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP
Co-Author, Microsoft Access Small Business Solutions, Wiley 2010

"Jim Devenish" <internet...@foobox.com> wrote in message
news:21588481.221.1332257557387.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@vbbp15...

[Neil]

Hi, Larry. Just curious what you mean by "the archive at Google Groups."
Comp-Databases-MS-Access at Google Groups has current postings. What do you
mean by "archive"? Thanks!


"Access Developer" <accd...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:9ss6oq...@mid.individual.net...

[Jim Devenish]

I thought I should contact Google. Do you have any idea how to do this? And have any chance of getting a reply?

[Bob Barrows]

No idea beyond going to google.com and clicking the contact us link.
I'm betting they also have groups for these types of questions, but that's
just a guess.

[Clif McIrvin]

(I got an error when posting ... this may be a duplicate posting)

On Friday, March 30, 2012 6:55:21 PM UTC-5, Neil wrote:
> Hi, Larry. Just curious what you mean by "the archive at Google Groups."
> Comp-Databases-MS-Access at Google Groups has current postings. What do you
> mean by "archive"? Thanks!
>

(not Larry :)

The web interface that Google supplies to USENET groups is vastly different than actually using a newsreader as Larry suggested.

In fact, the "new Google Groups" are even 'worse' than what Google Groups used to be in terms of compliance with the RFC's that define USENET and newsgroups.

What Larry means by the archive at Google is this: USENET makes no provision for keeping historical records of postings. Each USENET server (Host?) is free to set it's own retention policy. Therefore, there is no basis for "searching the archives". Today, Google harvests USENET traffic and maintains an archive going back many years -- so that they can provide their search engine.

(If memory serves correctly, Deja News started the USENET archive, and after Deja news went away, Google obtained their archive.)

What the world sees and knows as "Google Groups" is a web interface to the Google archive, not to the actual USENET newsgroups.

Confused?

HTH!

Clif

[Access Developer]

Yep... it's been a long time since I accessed Google Groups for archive
data... at one time, their saved posts extended back for years and years. It
was _The_ authoritative archive for USENET newsgroups. I don't have
time/energy to research, but if you can figure out the way to access it...
quite possibly complicated and made less user-friendly by UI changes
intended to simplify and make user-friendly.

--
Larry Linson
Microsoft Office Access MVP
Co-Author, Microsoft Access Small Business Solutions, Wiley 2010

"Clif McIrvin" <clar...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:17216011.0.1336768850486.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@ynbo10...

[Neil]

"Clif McIrvin" <clar...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:17216011.0.1336768850486.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@ynbo10...

============================

Thanks, Clif. I appreciate that distinction between the Google Groups
archive and USENET. I don't have a problem with what you wrote.

My point, though, is that, as far as it pertains to current postings,
accessing the group through Google Groups should be the same as accessing
through the newsgroup. Or is there a lag there?

The comment was based on that someone said he accessed the NG through Google
Groups, and Larry replied that he accessed the ARCHIVE of the NG at Google
Groups - implying that the person was accessing old postings, not current
ones. My request for clarification was basically saying: are you saying
there's a difference, when posting to the NG or reading from the NG, whether
one does so through Google Groups or through a newsreader?

I understand that as it pertains to OLD postings, there's a difference, as
Google Groups archives them. Fair enough. But the issue was as it pertains
to CURRENT postings. Is there a difference between going through Google
Groups or a newsreader?

Thanks.

[Clif McIrvin]

Often times there are significant differences. Typically, in my past experiences with using USENET postings appear nearly instantaneously. (Of course, there are USENET host servers that throttle bandwith, etc, etc so YMMV)

At work, I am on a reasonably fast connection, and I have never observed one of my postings via Google Groups to appear any sooner than several moments later. I have personally experienced delays of many minutes ... half an hour could be an exaggeration but I am quite comfortable with saying that I have experienced delays exceeding 10 minutes more than once --- and I am an infrequent player on these fields.

There are enough comments regarding missing and/or duplicated posts for me to conclude that serious latency is a common problem when using Google Groups.

When posting via Google Groups your message will never even hit USENET if the Google servers fail to pass your message along. In other words, it is possible for your message to appear on Google Groups, but to never appear on USENET ... and if the knowledgeable volunteers you need are using USENET (they most likely are) you are simply left hanging with no way of knowing your message never made it through. (Can I document that this has happened? no. Have I seen it? I think I have.)

It used to be -- quite likely still is -- the case that a number of extremely helpful newsgroup (USENET, not web forums) regulars grew so tired of the extremely low "signal to noise ratio" on Google Groups that they set their filters to simply reject anything from Google Groups. Thankfully, not everyone has done that, so there is still good help available here for those of us who for one reason or another find ourselves using Google Groups (or any of several other web forums) instead of a newsreader.

Another difference that is absolute is that these new Google Groups have completely broken USENET threading. I know that this does make following inquiries from someone using Google Groups much more difficult for regulars using newsreaders.

These are differences that I noticed a year or so ago when I was using a newsreader, and was here more frequently than I am now.

HTH

Clif

[Neil]

"Clif McIrvin" <clar...@gmail.com> wrote in message

news:6031189.2239.1337096901856.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@ynbv35...

====================

Thanks for the info. That's good to know. I'll be sure to avoid posting
through Google Groups (never have, actually, but was wondering about the
differences).

Neil