No more Google Groups search?

On Tue, 5 Nov 2013, Yousuf Khan wrote:

On 05/11/2013 1:51 AM, Paul wrote:
Nil wrote:
On 04 Nov 2013, John Doe wrote in
alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt:

Could be a glitch, but I can't find their search page, or "I'm not
finding their search page" if you prefer.

It's probably better described as a scandal.

They sure made a "dogs breakfast" out of the old Dejanews, didn't they.

What a waste.

Paul


Yup, my feelings exactly. Deja was so simple and easy to use, Google Groups
-- no where near that.

But people forget. Dejanews failed because they didn't get the "revenue
stream" they needed, and indeed dejanews had changed over its life.
Initially it was just an archive (and posting interface) for Usenet, but
as time went by, they tried to become something else. I can't remember if
they added their own forums, or tried to add some rating system, there was
something to make it more "consumer friendly" (ie about consuming) but I
can't remember exactly what.

Michael

On Tuesday, November 5, 2013 12:08:21 PM UTC-5, John Doe wrote:
I wonder whether there isn't one place in the world where people are

willing to pay something (however little) for access to public

discussion. I'm sure a nonprofit organization could handle the

overhead of a USENET archive. And

I was just reading one or two responses after yours and they disappeared after I signed in to Google Groups.

I miss Deja also. It seems like every change Google makes is geared toward making everything more difficult for the end user.

I no longer use Google to search like I did when they use to highlight your search terms in the returned documents. Since they no longer do this it has made finding what I need much, much harder.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

On Tuesday, November 5, 2013 12:08:21 PM UTC-5, John Doe wrote:
I wonder whether there isn't one place in the world where people are

willing to pay something (however little) for access to public

discussion. I'm sure a nonprofit organization could handle the

overhead of a USENET archive. And

And another thing. (Also attached directly yo your post because GOogle is not showing responses afterwards).

I hadn't given it much thought much Google somehow attached someone else' -mail to my log in. I have no idea who is.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

What is Google going to do with the USENET archive? It's a waste if
we can't search it.

John Doe wrote:
What is Google going to do with the USENET archive? It's a waste if
we can't search it.

Maybe they'll sell it to Yahoo ? :-)

Paul

On Thursday, November 7, 2013 10:52:07 AM UTC-5, John Doe wrote:
What is Google going to do with the USENET archive? It's a waste if

we can't search it.

I just type Google Groups in the Google search field. It's not perfect, but that's the only way.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

jamesjaddah1755 gmail.com wrote:

John Doe wrote:

What is Google going to do with the USENET archive? It's a
waste if

we can't search it.

I just type Google Groups in the Google search field. It's not
perfect, but that's the only way.

Not perfect is a gross understatement. See if you can find Linus
Torvalds talking about his Linux kernel project...



--

I ignore/block most threads when the original post is improperly
formatted by Google Groups users.

On Thu, 7 Nov 2013, John Doe wrote:

jamesjaddah1755 gmail.com wrote:

John Doe wrote:

What is Google going to do with the USENET archive? It's a
waste if

we can't search it.

I just type Google Groups in the Google search field. It's not
perfect, but that's the only way.

Not perfect is a gross understatement. See if you can find Linus
Torvalds talking about his Linux kernel project...

You mean the classic thread where he announces it? Which has now been
vandalized by all kinds of google-idiots who think it's "cool" to reply to
an old message, especially such a famouns message.

Google does damage coming and going.

First, they havent' fixed the bug that allows replies to posts older than
30 days (their rule, when they changed the interface some years back they
put the bug in, yet later fixed it, but the last interface change the bug
was back and they still haven't fixed it; this is another example of them
treating the thing like their own groups, maybe it makes sense for a web
forum (though I've seen the contrary) to allow posts to old messages, but
it's only nonsense for Usenet).

And then, when they added the separate archives going back to the
beginning, they put up a timeline of "important Usenet messages", which
included that post from Linus. So they make it a target, likely many
people without a clue of where they are posting.

Michael

If I were King...

I would smite Google and take the USENET archive.

I would make a web interface for USENET but (if possible) with the
same formatting as a USENET client/newsreader since that's what
makes USENET special. If that's not possible, a web interface
wouldn't work. The standard USENET tree style formatting combined
with the ability to ignore a thread branch is everything for
intelligent discussion.

There would be no moderated groups, it would include standard
unmoderated USENET groups.

Sign-up would require a credit card, only one user per billing
address. Not sure about the fee. Nonprofit is probably appropriate.
Not sure about offering binary groups. The fee might correspond to
number of bytes downloaded/uploaded. I suppose that cooperation
with the law is unavoidable, but binary USENET providers seem to do
well at that. Others know much better about the stuff.

My primary concern... Freedom of speech and freedom from speech.
Anonymity is okay when it comes to keeping others from knowing who
you are in real life (unless you are doing something illegal). But
nym-shifting to avoid filtering would be prohibited. That's why
requiring a credit card and only one user per billing address.

Even with personal filtering, I would like to prevent spamming
groups, either massive personal postings or by advertising. But I
guess that's really not necessary if you have buttons like "ignore
this poster and follow-ups" or just "ignore from here down". The
question is whether massive postings to a text group would slow
that group for everybody else even if they've ignored the spammer.

On 05/11/2013 5:04 PM, Michael Black wrote:
On Tue, 5 Nov 2013, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Yup, my feelings exactly. Deja was so simple and easy to use, Google
Groups -- no where near that.

But people forget. Dejanews failed because they didn't get the "revenue
stream" they needed, and indeed dejanews had changed over its life.
Initially it was just an archive (and posting interface) for Usenet, but
as time went by, they tried to become something else. I can't remember
if they added their own forums, or tried to add some rating system,
there was something to make it more "consumer friendly" (ie about
consuming) but I can't remember exactly what.

Yeah, they did go from a simple interface to a more modern web-based
interface. The beauty of their web interface was that it was a very
well-designed, simple interface, with lots of useful Usenet-geared
search facilities, which Google totally ruined when it bought them.

Yousuf Khan