Warning:very dangerous spam

Good advice. Not to beat a dead horse, but I must point out that this problem is almost exclusively restricted to Google Groups users, as virtually all commercial and free NSPs filter their Usenet traffic to eliminate spam posts, so users of those services don't see the spam at all. As a for instance, the free server I'm using right now shows no spam at all in this group for the past month.

Just sayin' Mark Lipton

Usenet will let just about anything through. Some readers do remove most spam, but I do not trust these programs completely because you usually do not know what they remove that is not spam or is borderline. This is more true of email than Usenet readers. I use Yahoo mail as a central point to collect domain and other mail. Yahoo has filters that can be set in several ways. All attachments are scanned for a virus before you can read them. It does miss on what it puts in the spam folder from time to time. I have had it put some mail from a company in the inbox and other from the same company in the spam box when what it considers spam is important mail. I upgraded to pay Yahoo mail some time ago to use some additional features. All of a sudden the New York Times site and some of their special emails I signed up for many years ago came back. I thought the Times must have quit sending these eMails, but ,no, the free Yahoo mail account was filtering them out. It also completely filtered out an important message from a program provider. There were other cases.

Usenet seems to becoming less and less used. There were many Microsoft Usenet groups, but within about 6 months there will be none left. They will use a more modern BB approach with moderators that will be able to control most types of spam, flame wars, and such. The first batch of the old Microsoft usenet groups has now been removed. Microsoft even provides a free program that will let you use many of the old usenet readers, if you wish.

If you go to Google Groups to read this usenet group, \you will find a button marked XML at the bottom of the page. If you click this you find our group is available as modern RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 XML feeds. Google gives you a list of several readers for these feeds including one of their own. If you play with the Google reader, you soon find our group concerning wine on usenet is only one of dozens of feeds concerning wine available as XML. You can subscribe to viewing these many groups, most of which are in blog or BB format. You can set up how to show these groups in many ways, you can set up to receive all new posts from several groups at one time, etc.

cwdjrxyz wrote in news:fe8bc4ca-9328-4060-971d- snipped-for-privacy@b35g2000yqi.googlegroups.com:

I use a very simple newsreader program: xnews, which just needs to be in a folder (even in a usb memory that you can take with you to every computer you use) and a free news service: news.x-privat.org

I do not see spam.

best,

s.

"santiago" wrote ...

At the recommendation of Professor Lipton (iirc) I use news.aioe.org as a free news server.

Whilst I recognise that free news servers (and Usenet) may not last too much longer, it provides me with a reliable and very fast access to alt.food.wine.

When using a remote computer, I sometimes "tune in" using Google.news - and it is then that I see just how much "crap" is also circulated on our newsgroup.

Although I am nowadays only a part time lurker, and very occasional contributor, I shall miss the sense of community should this type of forum should disappear.

st.helier

What wine do you drink with SPAM?

Cheap box wine, of course :-).

Don't insult the cheap box wine, it's too good for spam. :) Box wine can be had with let's say luncheon meat, or corned beef (the can variety). Spam, being vile, needs something to match - e.g. MD 20/20, or Wild Irish Rose. Incidentally, I found a cheap box wine on the US market that I can actually drink. It is Corbet Canyon chard, having surprisingly good acidity, and goes well with quick and cheap dishes like a stir-fry mix of chopped onions, peppers, brussels sprouts, okra, and artificial crab meat.

I have not had any Corbet Canyon wines in many years, but in the past they often offered good quality for the modest price. They may have been sold in large bottles in the far past, but I am not certain of this.

cwdjrxyz wrote on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:44:51 -0700 (PDT):

Box wines are much better than the old jug wines. Almaden introduced me to them more than 20 years ago and the Aussies sell some very decent ones. Bancroft Station's box wines compare quite favorably with many French country wines tho' they can't beat memories of drinking such wines in France.

Corbett Canyon Merlot isn't too shabby if you like 'em simple and blueberry-like.

Thanks for the warning - I'll stay away from the Merlot then. Curiously, the reason I decided to even try that Corbett Canyon chardonnay, is that on the box it implies it is the same as the bottle, and in that particular store, the bottle had a review. It was by one of the magazines - WS, I think, and it had some of the desirable keywords - firm and acidity and apple, IIRC, and did not have many of the undesirable ones - fruity, soft, round, sweet.

Do you mean Banrock Station? I actually didn't express myself properly above - I meant to say I found a cheap box /white/ wine to drink. I tolerate several cheap box reds. The common trait they have is not the brand, however, but where they come from. I have yet to try a box wine from Australia or Chile that I like - I find them universally too fruity and soft. For some reason, ones coming from Argentina are OK. I just need to pay attention and read on the box where it is made.

Pa-leeze.... Those in the know know the wine to go with spam is pinapple wine.

Mahalo

Ronin