"Your idea of filtering out Googlegroups posters is really GREAT! Done it myself. Improves the groups no end!" – Gordon
"The genocide continues unabated! I just killed 40 Google posts. No mercy. Die Google -- Die! The Google motto is 'Don't be evil.' BS, I say." – James E. Morrow
"Thanks Blinky! You, John Corless and >>Q<< have encouraged and guided me into being pretty much Google free! No more Google goobers for me! With NewsProxy I have all but eliminated the goobers from Usenet." – The Seabat
"I finally became so eager to join the project that I switched newsreaders to one that had decent kill file facilities." – Jeffrey
"Thanks for this site. It makes comp.lang.c++ readable again and also all other usenet newsgroups." – ciccio
"I think I'll join you in blocking Google posts. As is said by others on your page, they think UseNet is a helpdesk. I have used it as that for years but also stick around to contribute when I can." – Stan
Stan ended up filtering not only the original Google Grouper posts, but also anything downthread from them. We don't do that, because we don't want to give Google Groupers the power to poison whole threads, but that kind of filtering does illustrate how much animosity Google Groups posters elicit.
"Ahhh, so I'm not alone! I've been promoting the wholesale killing of google groups for several months now, ever since I tried it on sci.math, and noticed how much better the environment was. Of course, I've been a vociferous anti-gg ranter for years before then, I simply put up with them in the past. It's weird - reading your webpage, I almost got the feeling that I wrote it." – FatPhil
Perhaps some day our busts will be in the same room of the Museum Of Usenet Cleaners. :)
"I think the comments made by Ohmster should apply to indexing sites and other web interfaces for usenet. His comments are just as valid for them as for GG. People accessing usenet via any web interface have no clue that they are trashing what was once a community, and they don't understand the need for netiquette. They seem to view usenet as nothing more than a file server in which to dump whatever they please without regard for anyone. They generally account for most Abuse reports made any more. And they seem to have this belligerent attitude of 'You can't tell me what to do.' It is total anarchy now. And it shows no signs of stopping. The ignorance is spreading faster than ever. Usenet must be saved." – Andy
Andy's points are all well-taken here, and we can't help but encourage clued users to filter these other attempts to webify Usenet, or perhaps to respond to posts from those sources with replies that disparage the web forum and the unneeded webification of Usenet in general and encourage the use of real news clients. In terms of the Project's focus, the sheer volume of trash coming from Google Groups warrants that our focus remain on that source of noise. But, certainly, the other websites co-opting Usenet for their own purposes are equally detrimental -- by their nature if not yet by their numbers.
The worst implementation of one of these other web interfaces we've seen was selling keywords. They would sell a keyword - like, for instance, "virus" - to some website, and as they stole Usenet groups so they looked like their own web forums, any occurrence of "virus" would become a link to the website that paid for the word. So if your post happened to use the word "virus", every time it occurred it would be a link to buy-our-cheesy-software.example.com, making it look like you were recommending that outfit's software.
"When my ISP (Rogers) stopped supporting Usenet I searched for a free newsreader and, guess what, I found Google Groups - which I use (don't hit me! - my posts are all serious and mostly technical), I'm sad some are blocked en masse. I'd be happy to switch to a 'better' news group reader but what is out there and free?" – Engineer
This person really means he needs a new feed, not a new client. That said, those who think their ISP is the only source of Usenet feeds need to become informed. Here is a start.
Submit your own comments. They or parts of them may be used on this web site.
Great site Blinky. Keep up the good work. I just killed 54 Google posts. The slaughter continues unabated. – James E. Morrow
I didn't think anyone could top the annual autumn spewage when college classes resumed--then along came the AOL/WebTV crowd. They're now morphing into GoogleGropers, like some biblical sequence of plagues. – Harold Stevens
I've finally had to join the Usenet Improvement Project, it took me a very long time to do so but I finally became convinced yesterday. I've been analyzing posts from GG and have to agree the percent that contain useful info is way too small to worry about. – XS11E
From my own informal sampling, the trash from Google _far_ outweighs the treasure and I'll gladly accept a few losses. – John McGaw
An ungodly large number of numbskulls use google groups and think they're posting to "Google Groups" when they're posting to USENET. – Magus
I finally gave up and I'm blocking google groups posters. Ever since I dropped Google Groups, the world has become a better place. – Evan Platt
