rec.heraldry forum…What happened.

 
Brian
 
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Brian
Total Posts:  145
Joined  07-12-2004
 
 
 
30 August 2007 15:56
 

Did it get hit with that bad poetry virus I heard about?  All the threads have been replaced with babal.  Does anyone know if google is working on a correction?  Just wondering.

 
PBlanton
 
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PBlanton
Total Posts:  808
Joined  06-11-2005
 
 
 
30 August 2007 16:36
 

Brian,

The legitimate posts look okay to me (of course that’s not saying much, considering the forum LOL), but I have noticed a huge amount of spamming on the forum over the last week or so.

 

Take care,

 
 
David Pritchard
 
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David Pritchard
Total Posts:  2058
Joined  26-01-2007
 
 
 
30 August 2007 17:23
 

The Usenet forum rec.heraldry has been in a slow decline for some years, even without the mass spamming of the forum, I find it of little interest or educational value on the whole as most of the better posters have fled to other message boards such as this one or that of the HSS or the IAAH. While the forum can be accessed via Google Groups, it is not a specifically Google owned group, there are many other ways to access this forum using either subscription news services or some free foreign services.

A free French language link to rec.heraldry: http://www.1001newsgroups.com/lmess.php?name=rec.heraldry&first=1&last=40

 

A free Spanish language link to a version of rec.heraldry that seems to have filtered out 100% of the trash. Only on topic posts appear: http://groups.expo.st/grp/rec.heraldry

 
Michael F. McCartney
 
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Michael F. McCartney
Total Posts:  3535
Joined  24-05-2004
 
 
 
31 August 2007 18:05
 

At this point, somewhat sadly, the main value of rec.heraldry seems to be the Google archives of past postings over the years (decades?).  There is much of value, with of course the usual chaff.  I just hope that Google keeps the archives open & searchable!

 
James Dempster
 
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James Dempster
Total Posts:  602
Joined  20-05-2004
 
 
 
01 September 2007 03:32
 

rec.heraldry and several other newgroups are currently suffering from a form of attack called "Sporging", see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporgery

The effect is much worse for users who access through Google than for those of us who access it through Newsgroup software and dedicated usenet servers because dedicated software can be set to delete/ignore threads and to killfile posters. Many usenet servers also have server-side spam filters and the like. Google groups does not appear to have such facilities.

 

If you access many Google groups that are simply mirrors of Usenet groups it is worthwhile finding out from your ISP whether they have a Usenet server. Some do, though numbers are falling. There are also some free and some subscription Usenet servers out there that are independent of ISPs. Some email clients have usenet abilities and there are free and paid for dedicated Usenet clients as well. For Windows users FreeAgent is one of the better known - though a bit long in the tooth.

 

James