apparently comp.arch, comp.lang.c++, and com.lang.fortran are now read only at google groups

[Lynn McGuire]

Apparently comp.arch, comp.lang.c++, and comp.lang.fortran are now read
only at google groups to stop the spam floods.

Lynn

[Jeff Ryman]

I have switched to www.i2pn2.org for comp.lang.fortran using the Agent
v8.0 newsreader. Seems to be working ok for now.

I wish google groups would delete all the obvious spam in the Thai
language as well as making the group read only.

[Spiros Bousbouras]

Same as comp.lang.c as has been mentioned elsewhere
(<iMWdnVed06hwqtz4...@brightview.co.uk> for example). Good. I
wonder how that works. Was some algorithm at googlegroups triggered and
automatically took the measure (or notified a human) or do they have some
employee at Google regularly take a few minutes of their time once per
several weeks to have a short look at googlegroups to see how things are
working ? I will guess the latter because an algorithm would have acted much
sooner.

[George Neuner]

You mean the spam floods that Google openly condones and possibly also
facilitates in order to promote its own group services?

[The Doctor]

In article <a1e3kihl2o606a97g...@4ax.com>,

Apt way of putting it!
--
Member - Liberal International This is doc...@nk.ca Ici doc...@nk.ca
Yahweh, King & country!Never Satan President Republic!Beware AntiChrist rising!
Look at Psalms 14 and 53 on Atheism ; unsubscribe from Google Groups to be seen
Today is not tomorrow, and this world provides no guarantees. -unknown https://mindspring.com

[The Doctor]

In article <7Zt5DHW8...@bongo-ra.co>,

The depeering of Google Groups will be the ultimate act of mercy!

[candycanearter07]

Bad actors ruining legitimate experience because of a half-assed
solution, a tale as old as time.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

[The Doctor]

In article <uhsgkc$1a99v$2...@dont-email.me>,

Annd Google is the biggest bad actor out there!

>--
>user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom
>

[John Levine]

According to George Neuner <gneu...@comcast.net>:

>>Lynn
>
>You mean the spam floods that Google openly condones and possibly also
>facilitates in order to promote its own group services?

I think you vastly overestimate how much anyone at Google cares about Groups.
The whole thing has been on autopilot for years, it can't possibly be making
them enough money to deal with the hassle.

FWIW I get plenty of spam directly from Groups when people yet again load
up a spam list and blast out mail in languages I cannot read.



--
Regards,
John Levine, jo...@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

[Joe Pfeiffer]

Lynn McGuire <lynnmc...@gmail.com> writes:

> Apparently comp.arch, comp.lang.c++, and comp.lang.fortran are now
> read only at google groups to stop the spam floods.

No, I'm reading through Eternal September. Blocking posts with Thai
characters eliminates nearly all of the flood for me (but geez, it's
awful that it's necessary).

[John Levine]

According to Joe Pfeiffer <pfei...@cs.nmsu.edu>:

>Lynn McGuire <lynnmc...@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Apparently comp.arch, comp.lang.c++, and comp.lang.fortran are now
>> read only at google groups to stop the spam floods.
>
>No, I'm reading through Eternal September.

That's "read only" as in they don't let people post new articles.

People continue to read those groups all over the place. You
couldn't stop if if you wanted to.

[George Neuner]

On Wed, 1 Nov 2023 10:55:06 -0000 (UTC), John Levine <jo...@taugh.com>
wrote:

>According to George Neuner <gneu...@comcast.net>:
>>>Lynn
>>
>>You mean the spam floods that Google openly condones and possibly also
>>facilitates in order to promote its own group services?
>
>I think you vastly overestimate how much anyone at Google cares about Groups.
>The whole thing has been on autopilot for years, it can't possibly be making
>them enough money to deal with the hassle.

Maybe. But remember that Google trades in eyeballs ... the money, in
some sense, is secondary.


"group" is overloaded.

Google Groups (GG) is a unified interface that provides access to
Usenet, public mailing lists, and to Google's own group services.

But there is a substantial difference: Google offers spam filtering to
its own groups, while denying it to others.

>FWIW I get plenty of spam directly from Groups when people yet again load
>up a spam list and blast out mail in languages I cannot read.

Sure it can happen.

GG's spam filtering has to be opted into by the group administrator.
However, there is no way provided for an outside group to do that, so
even those non-Google Usenet groups and mailing lists that /have/
living administrators have no way to opt into Google's spam filtering.

Also, my experience with GG has been that its spam filtering only
checks posts made via email (the "list" interface). It seems that
posts made directly via the web UI are checked only for abusive
language (and then only in English), and once accepted they can be
removed only by the group adminstrator or via user complaints.


The major point here is that Google provides (some semblence of) spam
filtering - but only for its own groups.

YMMV.

[Jakob Bohm]

Looking at some of the GSpam, I just noticed that GG helpfully adds a
header indicating the spammer's IP, perhaps someone with copies of the
GSpam from recent weeks can see if there is a pattern that can be used
for filtering more specific than just blocking GG.

Enjoy

Jakob
--
Jakob Bohm, CIO, Partner, WiseMo A/S. https://www.wisemo.com
Transformervej 29, 2860 Søborg, Denmark. Direct +45 31 13 16 10
This public discussion message is non-binding and may contain errors.
WiseMo - Remote Service Management for PCs, Phones and Embedded

[John Levine]

It appears that George Neuner <gneu...@comcast.net> said:
>The major point here is that Google provides (some semblence of) spam
>filtering - but only for its own groups.

This is completely consistent with it being on autopilot. Someone
built the spam filter for their own groups, nobody got around to
making it work with usenet. I can easily imagine them saying there's
so much garbage in usenet from other places, what difference would
it make?

As the old saw reminds us, don't assume malice until you've ruled out
incompetence.

[Joe Pfeiffer]

John Levine <jo...@taugh.com> writes:

> According to Joe Pfeiffer <pfei...@cs.nmsu.edu>:
>>Lynn McGuire <lynnmc...@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> Apparently comp.arch, comp.lang.c++, and comp.lang.fortran are now
>>> read only at google groups to stop the spam floods.
>>
>>No, I'm reading through Eternal September.
>
> That's "read only" as in they don't let people post new articles.
>
> People continue to read those groups all over the place. You
> couldn't stop if if you wanted to.

Ummm.... so they allow followups but not new topics?

[Michael S]

Read-only. No posting. Neither newtopics nor followups. None. Nada.

[Joe Pfeiffer]

But I posted this followup to comp.arch through eternal-september.

[Retro Guy]

On Wed, 01 Nov 2023 14:19:19 -0600

You can post from anywhere you want that carries the group, you just
can't post from google groups

--
Retro Guy

[Chris M. Thomasson]

We can still use google groups for some searching purposes. Remember
when they, Google, tried to outright ban comp.lang.c a while back? Not
even able to read it...

[Stephen Fuld]

There has been some confusion in this thread recently. Anyone with an
account can read and post messages using Eternal September. The "read
only" is apparently just Google Groups. That is, anyone can read any
article through Google Groups, but no one can post new articles nor
replies to the group using Google Groups.



--
- Stephen Fuld
(e-mail address disguised to prevent spam)

[Jack]

On 01/11/2023 21:31, Stephen Fuld wrote:
>
> There has been some confusion in this thread recently.  Anyone with an
> account can read and post messages using Eternal September.  The "read
> only" is apparently just Google Groups. That is, anyone can read any
> article through Google Groups, but no one can post new articles nor
> replies to the group using Google Groups.
>
>
>

There is another server called "paganini.bofh.team". You don't need an
account but spam is not allowed. People abusing the server will have
their IP address blocked.

[Joe Pfeiffer]

Ah, OK. When I originally posted that I was reading from e-s, it was
pointed out to me that I couldn't post. Which seemed very odd, under the
circumstances.

[red floyd]

On 11/1/2023 5:40 AM, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:

> No, I'm reading through Eternal September. Blocking posts with Thai
> characters eliminates nearly all of the flood for me (but geez, it's
> awful that it's necessary).
>

Anybody know can you do that blocking with Thunderbird?

[David Brown]

There is now no need (at least in these groups). All the spam came
through Google's service, and they have blocked posting.

[Branimir Maksimovic]

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.arch.]

I notice by number of headers. it dropped significantly...

--

7-77-777, Evil Sinner!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/branimir-maksimovic-6762bbaa/

[wolfgang kern]

On 02/11/2023 06:05, red floyd wrote:

YES, I could make all exotic spam disappear that way [for now].
__
wolfgang (ES+Thunderbird)

[Quadibloc]

On Tue, 31 Oct 2023 17:32:11 -0500, Lynn McGuire wrote:

> Apparently comp.arch, comp.lang.c++, and comp.lang.fortran are now read
> only at google groups to stop the spam floods.

Initially, when I read this, I thought that this was not the case, at least
for comp.arch, as I had just posted there on Google Groups.

However, somewhat later, I did try again - having switched to Eternal
September to _read_ it without the spam flood - and I found that this
was true... and, in addition, now Google Groups is requiring a CAPTCHA
to post to any other group.

John Savard