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Re: OT - Re: Why so many drug posts?

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Since we are off-topic already, and I think this subject is more important 
than some might think at first, allow me a larger off-topic comment on it.

Mike Duffy wrote:

> On Sun, 8 Jun 2014 04:41:44 +0000 (UTC), Denis McMahon wrote:
>> ... wanker spammers see "script" in the group title
> 
> This does not explain Armani, Gucci, Nike, Air Jordan, and a few others.

I am not in the spammer-hunting and certainly not in the spamming business, 
but I think the reason is very simple: Spammers will spam whereever and in 
any way they can as long as it pays for them.  On the expenses side, 
Web/Usenet spam costs them virtually nothing.  On the revenue side, they are 
probably paid by the number of effective spam messages they can emit.  A 
spam message would be considered effective by their clients if it is likely 
to reach a large audience.

comp.lang.javascript is, compared to other newsgroups, still a high-traffic 
newsgroup (even with filter – see below –, I count 701 postings in the last 
7 months, that is, ca. 3 postings per day).  Also, ECMAScript 
implementations (“[Jj]ava[Ss]cript” in their lingo) are everywhere, it is a 
growing market, so probably the expectation is that there are many readers.  

There is also the possibility that they do not care where they spam.

There is another, more disturbing possibility: Spammers could pay Google for 
allowing them to spam via Google Groups.  After all, it has become Google’s 
business model to get paid for placing advertisements on the Web.
 
>> I very rarely see any such posts, probably because I read this
>> newsgroup in a proper newsreader that I have taught over time
> 
> I recently re-installed Windows, 

Do you do this often?

> and as usual, forgot to back up my (40tude) kill file. Here it the section
> relating to this group. Perhaps newcomers might find it useful, or I can
> find it again the next time I re-install Windows:
> […] 
> !delete From "mentifex@myuw.net"
> 
> !delete Subject "Air Jordan"
> […]
> !delete Subject "Zovirax"

If you compare the matches for those rules with postings injected at Google 
Groups, you will find that *all* of this spam was injected at Google 
Groups.  It is not a coincidence that the OP who was complaining about spam 
(cluelessly, in the wrong place) was a Google Grouper.

Google has managed to turn the prized DejaNews Usenet archive into a second 
AOHell¹.  Users are not made aware that they are posting to a Usenet 
newsgroup.  For example, comp.lang.javascript is displayed as if it were any 
other Google Groups group.  You cannot search by Message-ID anymore unless 
you know the original newsgroup(s), and even then you need to be lucky.  All 
messages are distributed from Google Groups to other newsservers, but 
control messages are not observed by Google Groups.  Messages can be deleted 
from Google Groups without emitting a Cancel message to other newsservers; 
they are deleted from Google Groups automatically after a while without 
emitting a Cancel message with certain header fields or content.  The 
possibility for using a fixed-width font for display is gone except for 
source view (“Original message”), and people are encouraged to “Express 
[themselves]: Use rich-text editing to customize your posts with fonts, 
colors, and images.”[1].  Lines are not wrapped at 80 columns at the latest, 
nor are users notified of that convention when they post to a Usenet 
newsgroup.  Not even the most basic Usenet features, like Followup-To, are 
observed anymore by the interface, so that once a crossposting has started, 
the discussion has to stop on Google Groups for the mindless crossposting to 
end.

With the new version of Google Groups at the latest, Google has effectively 
separated itself from the ideas and ideals of Network News and Usenet.  They 
are obviously not thinking in terms of freely distributed messages where the 
community decides what they find worth to discuss about, create and 
distribute newsgroups for it, and everyone can have voice their opinion; 
their idea of online discussion is that everyone has their own "group" 
(notice that “news” disappeared) and decides which opinions are worth to be 
published in it and which are not.  And that, again, Google controls 
everything.

Their spam-handling fits this pattern: Spam is never deleted from Google 
Groups; spam messages are not admin-canceled; spammers’ accounts are not 
closed even after intense complaints/marking.  “This topic has been *hidden* 
because it has been flagged for abuse.”  So the spam message with Subject 
”Hydrocodone” is hidden, but all previous ones, by the same poster, are not?  
Their *GMail* account continues to exist undisabled?  Google, not the user, 
decides what is spam deserving to be hidden (only on Google Groups, of 
course), and what is not.

All that is endorsing censorship, not free speech; monopoly, not diversity.  
Google takes everything from Network News, but does not return anything.  It 
is fairly obvious to me now that Google is just waiting for Network News to  
go the way of the dinosaur, and for Google Groups to take over; that they 
would not do anything to prevent that, and that they may silently support 
it.  But it is not going to happen.

So, here’s a better idea, much easier to implement: Killfile/UDP Google 
Groups so that, hopefully but unlikely, either their users or they come to 
their senses.

<http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/> WFM.

BTW, I have already said that three months ago, when this thread was 
started.  This shows two things: 1. The situation with Google Groups has not 
improved and it is unlikely to improve in the future.  2. You two are a bit 
late to the party.

__________
¹ see “the September that never ended”

[1] <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!overview>
-- 
PointedEars
FAQ: <http://PointedEars.de/faq> | SVN: <http://PointedEars.de/wsvn/>
Twitter: @PointedEars2 | ES Matrix: <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>
Please do not Cc: me. / Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail.

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Thread

Why so many drug posts? Walter Milner <w.w.milner@gmail.com> - 2014-03-08 08:45 -0800
  Re: Why so many drug posts? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-03-08 17:28 +0000
  Re: Why so many drug posts? Walter Milner <w.w.milner@gmail.com> - 2014-03-08 09:47 -0800
    Re: Why so many drug posts? Jukka Lahtinen <jtfjdehf@hotmail.com.invalid> - 2014-03-08 20:30 +0200
    Re: Why so many drug posts? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-03-08 18:39 +0000
    Re: Why so many drug posts? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2014-03-08 20:17 +0100
  Re: Why so many drug posts? "Chris M. Thomasson" <no@spam.invalid> - 2014-03-08 14:47 -0800
  Re: Why so many drug posts? Peter Gruber <jippijappo@hotmail.com> - 2014-03-08 14:55 -0800
    Re: Why so many drug posts? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2014-03-09 00:48 +0100
  Re: Why so many drug posts? Richard Maher <maher_rjSPAMLESS@hotmail.com> - 2014-03-09 08:54 +0800
    Re: Why so many drug posts? "Evertjan." <exxjxw.hannivoort@inter.nl.net> - 2014-03-09 08:58 +0100
  Re: Why so many drug posts? mentificium@gmail.com - 2014-03-09 08:05 -0700
    Re: Why so many drug posts? "Evertjan." <exxjxw.hannivoort@inter.nl.net> - 2014-03-09 18:04 +0100
  Re: Why so many drug posts? Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2014-06-08 04:41 +0000
    OT - Re: Why so many drug posts? Mike Duffy <md_002@videotron.ca> - 2014-06-23 11:24 -0400
      Re: OT - Re: Why so many drug posts? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-06-23 17:25 +0100
      Re: OT - Re: Why so many drug posts? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2014-06-24 12:26 +0200
        Re: OT - Re: Why so many drug posts? Mike Duffy <md_002@videotron.ca> - 2014-06-24 14:13 -0400
          [OT] Dealing with newsgroup spam (was: OT - Re: Why so many drug posts?) Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2014-06-24 21:05 +0200
            Re: [OT] Dealing with newsgroup spam Mike Duffy <md_002@videotron.ca> - 2014-06-24 16:57 -0400
              Re: [OT] Dealing with newsgroup spam Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2014-06-24 23:42 +0200
                Re: [OT] Dealing with newsgroup spam Jukka Lahtinen <jtfjdehf@hotmail.com.invalid> - 2014-06-25 11:19 +0300
        Re: OT - Re: Why so many drug posts? John Harris <niam@jghnorth.org.uk.invalid> - 2014-06-25 15:25 +0100
      Re: OT - Re: Why so many drug posts? Evan Platt <evan@theobvious.espphotography.com.invalid> - 2014-06-24 06:46 -0700
      Re: OT - Re: Why so many drug posts? Qruqs <qruqs@visit.community.page.invalid> - 2014-06-25 15:45 +0000

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