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Groups > alt.comp.software.thunderbird > #16754

Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry?

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On Sun, 5/25/2025 5:51 AM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
> (138.0.2)
> I have set up (service from) two news servers, but they remain separate - any newsgroup that's on both appears as a separate entity, with articles/threads having different "read/not read" status.
> 
> Is there any way to merge them, so that I only see one set - or, at least, when I read a post in one, it's marked read in the other?
> 
> Apologies if the is a newbie question; last time I used Thunderbird was I think in single-digit version numbers (the same may have been the case then, but I would have only been using one news server).
> 
> And: is there any way of setting an "expiry" period, such that posts - unless manually starred (or tagged or something similar) - disappear <period> after downloading, whether read or not? (Former Turnpike user, which is where I get the term "expiry" - it may be called something else, if it exists. I could in TP set a different expiry per newsgroup - I had 3 days for most. [Oh, and TP merged across 'groups no problem; it showed available servers for each 'group, and you could select/switch server (per 'group) any time, and the "read" state of posts didn't change (though you occasionally got repeat downloads of a few posts).]

Available groups:

server 1      # Another server
   group A
   group B
   group C
server 2      # Lowest latency, or highest availability server
   group A
   group B

What I subscribe to:

server 1      # Another server
   group C
server 2      # Lowest latency, or highest availability server
   group A
   group B

You don't have to subscribe to exactly the same groups
at exactly the same time. You can pick a primary server
and subscribe to your interests, pick a secondary server
for some other purpose.

And that pattern holds in practice. Right now, one server
has maybe a dozen groups subscribed, but my activity is in
only one group, a group which has been placed at the
top of the list.

Most of the time, I'm on server 2, some of the time
on server 1.

One server (Server 3) is read-only and it is unfiltered, and that
one represents an "archive capability". Since you can't
post there, it's just for looking stuff up, or studying
spam patterns (the spamming event that caused google groups
to disconnect from USENET). It has an expiry set, so there are
only so many days on it. Whereas a commercial server can have
twelve years of posts.

During the spam event, Server2 was equipped with SpamAssassin, and
this resulted in a clean feed for purpose. Server3 does not
have that filter. In response to these spamming events, Server3
went read-only. As the operator could not be bothered making a
huge programmatic response to what was going on.

In Thunderbird, if you "Compact" a group, the headers of expired
messages can be removed. Similarly, if you "Offline Sync" and
collect the messages from the server, on your own machine, the
"Offline Sync" operation removes expired headers. Expired
headers can be fed into Howard Knight, as a means of reading
items that may have scrolled off the other servers.

http://al.howardknight.net/

My expired headers for the Windows 7 group, go from 2010 to 2025, as
an example. Only messages from 2024-2025 can actually be read off
the average free server. The rest would use HowardKnight, if a need
arose to go back that far. HowardKnight used to include lookup
access to Google Groups via some API, but that might no longer
be all that useful, that backup capability. Whatever other retention
HK taps into, is unclear. HowardKnight is sorta like a news server,
but is for reference purposes rather than scrolling. And that's the
only purpose of me stopping Compaction and keeping Expired Headers,
is to feed them to HK on an as-needed basis. HK uses truncation on
messages, to stop the movie crowd from turning it into a movie server,
so the messages there are truncated, for long posts. That was done
instead of writing a filter that recognizes all attempts to exploit
USENET.

   Paul

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combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2025-05-25 10:51 +0100
  Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-05-25 15:56 +0100
  Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-05-25 11:30 -0400
    Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2025-06-01 13:32 +0100
      Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-06-01 14:03 -0400
  Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? James <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-05-25 15:36 +0000
    Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2025-06-01 12:58 +0100
  Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-05-25 21:11 +0200
    Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? dillinger <dillinger@invalid.not> - 2025-05-25 23:10 +0200
      Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-05-26 13:28 +0200
    Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> - 2025-05-26 17:50 +1200
      Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-05-26 13:34 +0200
    Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2025-06-01 13:40 +0100
      Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-06-01 14:05 +0100
        Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2025-06-03 13:38 +0100
      Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-06-01 15:36 -0400
        Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> - 2025-06-03 13:50 +0100
      Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-06-04 15:23 +0200
  Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-05-25 20:01 -0500
    Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-05-26 13:37 +0200
      Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "Gary R. Schmidt" <grschmidt@acm.org> - 2025-05-27 16:01 +1000
      Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-06-04 15:18 +0200
  Re: combine newsgroups from two or more servers? And expiry? "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> - 2025-05-26 16:54 +0200

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