Re: Hard times

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

PS....

I wrote:
I don't see any messages from "bleachbot" in
microsoft.public.excel on the server
msnews.microsoft.com -- at least, nothing in the
past two months.

Well, I just noticed a set of "responses" that appear to be follow-ups to an original message that I do not see. Presumably the original message (spam) was removed. (Right. I see it in Google Groups, but on the msnews.microsoft.com server.) In any case, there is no information that would allow me know that "bleachbot" removed the original spam. As I noted, there are other way.s


----- original message -----

"JoeU2004" <joeu2004@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:Oqu$nln2JHA.4412@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Salmon Egg" <SalmonEgg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It appears that hard times are causing some, I hope
truly desperate people, to spam newsgroups with crap.

This is not new to these "hard times". People have been spamming newsgroups for decades. Some news servers are better than others at filtering them. And it takes time for such news servers to adapt to new spamming techniques.


I notice that someone called bleachbot seems to hover in
the background, cancelling much of this spam on various
newsgroups including this one.

I'm curious: how do you know this? That is, what is it that you see that tells you this is happening, and what tells you that "bleachbot" is responsible?

If the message were truly cancelled, I would think there is no evidence of it.

This might be something peculiar to your news server. I don't see any messages from "bleachbot" in microsoft.public.excel on the server msnews.microsoft.com -- at least, nothing in the past two months.


Just how would I go about it?

The short answer is: (1) you issue an NNTP control message with a cancel directive (RFC 1036); or (2) you issue a proprietary cancel command to the news server directly.

The longer answer is: generally, __you__ cannot.

Even if you could cause an "NNTP cancel" message to be sent (i.e. an NNTP control message with a cancel directive), most reputable news servers will try to limit this operation to the author of the article being cancelled. But of course, that can be spoofed. And then there are the unreputable news servers, mostly based in Europe and Asia.

For that reason, many news servers do not recognize the NNTP cancel message. And many news servers will not push NNTP cancel messages to downstream news servers. If a news server has a proprietary cancel command, that usually does not cause an NNTP cancel message to be generated.

Some news readers permit you to change the subject line. Since most news readers thread articles based on the original message ID and subsequent reference message IDs, this might make it appear that spam messages are "removed" simply because their subject line is no longer umpteen characters long.

But not all news readers permit this. And some news readers thread based on the subject line, so any change would simply look like a new thread. (This is a nuisance.) Moreover, even in some news readers that thread based on message IDs, the changed subject line might simply appear inline in the thread; it does not alter the original thread subject.

TMI?


----- original message -----

"Salmon Egg" <SalmonEgg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:SalmonEgg-78DB96.16103021052009@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It appears that hard times are causing some, I hope truly desperate
people, to spam newsgroups with crap. Even though I can sympathize with
their desparation, I cannot abide them screwing up this and other
newsgroups,

I notice that someone called bleachbot seems to hover in the background,
cancelling much of this spam on various newsgroups including this one. I
am fed up enough to do the same if I only knew how.

Just how would I go about it?

Bill

--
Most people go to college to get their missing high school education.


.

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