Quick Workaround for the Google Groups/Spam Problem

[Jim Biancolo]

I assume folks who read RSD via a ISP-provided, spam-filtered Usenet
service don't really have too many spam issues, but if you're like me
and read RSD through Google Groups, the spam is a major pain. The
volume of spam makes it hard to deal with on the client side. Even if
I could hide the spam, the entire front page would just be filled with
placeholders. But if you use a news aggregator like Google Reader:

http://www.google.com/reader

... then I've been playing with a workaround that seems decent
enough. Google Groups exposes a few RSS feeds for each group:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.sport.disc/feeds

Those feeds still have the spam in them. But I've run them through
Yahoo Pipes, which allows me to filter out the spam based on some key
attributes: the biggest offending authors, the string "www" in the
subject, etc. With just a few of these rules, most of the spam gets
filtered out. I've made those filtered RSS feeds available here:

http://pipes.yahoo.com/jimspipes

"rsd messages" is all the messages, and "rsd topics" is the new topics
(both spam filtered). If you click on either of those, you will see
various subscription options, including "Get as RSS", which will allow
you to subscribe in Google Reader, or your newsreader of choice.

Even better, look for the "Clone" link on a pipe's page. This allows
you to make your own version of the pipe (it has a nice, non-technical
interface) should you want to filter out particular authors, or if the
spammers change habits and stuff starts sneaking through. You can
customize it to fit your own needs, and then subscribe to your cloned
pipe instead of mine.

I've been watching mine for around 24 hours, and it seems to catch the
lion's share of the spam.

Jim

P.S. If/when it gets out of beta, feedscrub might be a good option
too, but right now it's invite-only:

http://www.feedscrub.com/

[Alison]

THANK YOU!

[jermleeds]

Another big hit, Jim, thank you. I'll bang on it and send any thoughts
along, assuming you'd find them helpful.

[Peterson]

Thanks for the info-

Dar- looks like your spam laden income stream is coming to an end.
How will I know where to find cheap Puma shoes?

Peterson

[Jim Biancolo]

On Jul 8, 2:21 pm, jermleeds <jermle...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Another big hit, Jim, thank you. I'll bang on it and send any thoughts
> along, assuming you'd find them helpful.

Thanks! And feedback is certainly welcome. Although I hope my
examples here won't be the canonical ones forever. With that clone
feature, we can let a thousand flowers bloom. More dedicated RSD
users than I could even create a shared Yahoo account, so that a group
of people could maintain the filter as the spammers (d)evolve. Of
course, such a group wouldn't be the final answer any more than my
pipes are. Any time a pipe gets too permissive or restrictive, you
can just clone it and tweak to your liking.

[T H]

correct me if i'm wrong, but there's not a way to "tweak" google
reader so it filters out the spam is there?

[Jim Biancolo]

> correct me if i'm wrong, but there's not a way to "tweak" google
> reader so it filters out the spam is there?

I don't think so. Google Groups doesn't filter out Usenet spam before
displaying it via their web interface, and Google Reader just displays
whatever exists in your subscribed feeds. This is why Pipes (or
something) has to sit in the middle.

[Seppo #22]

We are also building a nice North American (and International) crowd
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Cheers!

- Seppo #22

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