Science Talk

Cyberiade.it Anonymous Re · Guest

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Granted the whole world looks like it's going to hell in a hand-
basket, on the very brink of Armageddon, with December 21, 2012
looming large on the horizon. So this little "update" is merely
for the record, and because others may find this useful to them.

I think that's about it for the old "Google Groups". Ever since
December 2004, they've never been the same. They came back, sort
of, but searches have never really worked ever since, especially
when using multiple search terms and criteria. Defunct Deja News
was vastly more reliable than Google Groups ever was. Especially
since mid-June, 2007, the "Google Groups" search engine has been
completely unusable. If you know the message id, you might still
be able to retrieve archived articles by copying the message id
and pasting it after the equal sign in the following link, then
opening the whole link in your favorite Internet browser window:

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=

But just in case, because one can never tell with "Google Groups",
the following links might turn up a few hits, but then maybe not:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Daniel-Joseph-Min&num=10&scoring=d
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Daniel-Joseph-Min&num=100&scoring=d
http://www.google.com/search?q=Daniel-Joseph-Min

The above links used to turn up about ~30,000 hits, give or take,
but those days are long gone. I'd hoped that Google Groups would
make yet another miraculous comeback, but I see now I was being
overly pollyannaish and unrealistic. You might have more success
with your own advanced searches, but mine fizzled out years ago.
I think I know why, but I leave that for the reader to consider
(I don't think it's just me, but something a bit more Orwellian).

One feature still seems to be working for now, and that's using
generic newsgroup feeds to check if my new articles are getting
through, which comes in handy, since I unsubscribed from usenet
newsgroups in May 2008...too many trolls, not enough kill-files.

For example, using Internet Explorer, I type <Ctrl+F> and paste
the subject header of my newest article in the field, and voila!
If the article was recently posted, it'll show up in the window:

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/feed/topics.xml?num=100

What's really superior about using this method, is that it only
shows the date, time, "from", title, and the first few lines of
the article in the window, and that's it. Once I see it, I know
it's there and I never need to look for it again. The only down-
side is that remailers don't always post right away, and if you
are searching in busy groups, you may have to look periodically.

In the worst-case scenario, you can search by topic summary and
topic list, but this can show replies, if any, which I strictly
ignore, but in a busy group this method has more longevity, e.g.:

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/topics?lnk
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/topics?gvc=2

Or click on the [xml] button on the bottom of the page, to wit:

http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/feed/rss_v2_0_topics.xml?num=100
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/feed/atom_v1_0_topics.xml?num=100

You might try using the "feed reader" approach, but my simpler
method works well enough for me. I really don't want to "read"
newsgroup feeds, I merely want to look at them, and that's all.
The upside is that anonymous remailers have become vastly more
reliable and predictable nowadays. And I always try to "x-post"
to at least one relatively inactive group, making it easier to
spot my own articles. So far this method has worked flawlessly,
and it saves me the trouble of seeing "replies" to my articles,
leaving me free to focus on my own work, and leave the rest of
the world to do as it will. I have unplugged from the "Matrix".

Updated this 9 July 2008 anno Domini,
Daniel Joseph Min
http://www.angelfire.com/moon2/danieljosephmin/
--
I do not subscribe to usenet newsgroups. Reply
via email, <mailto:danieljosephmin@**PRIVATE**>

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