Usenet Improvement Project

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Filters - Examples 1

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Unless you've specified that it be placed elsewhere, your slrn Score file is probably in the News subdirectory of your home directory. This is regarding Linux installations; there is also a slrn port for Windows, and its location there will have to be determined with your file manager's file find utility. The Xnews score.ini file will be found in your Xnews directory. Pan allows you to use any file you choose as your score file and place it wherever you wish. Here at the UIP, slrn and Pan share the same score file; this illustrates one of the advantages of applications using nonproprietary formats for data storage.

For Pan and slrn, use this filter:

[*] Score:: =-9999 Message-ID: googlegroups Message-ID: webtv

For Xnews, the only difference is the way "all groups" is specified in the first line:

[.] Score:: =-9999 Message-ID: googlegroups Message-ID: webtv

Oops! How did "webtv" get in there? Well, it certainly wasn't an accident. Heh. If you want to have some fun with WebTV-heads plug this header into your news client: X-WebTV-Stationery: Standard; BGColor=red; TextColor=red   instead of filtering them; then go ahead and reply to them.

Okay, back to the filters. For this simple rule, Xnews' scoring syntax is the same as slrn's and Pan's, except for that first line and the default case sensitivity, but they don't come into play with these simple rules.

The first line in the filter rule tells slrn/Pan/Xnews to apply this rule to all groups. The asterisk or dot is a wild card. If you for some inconceivable reason wanted only to apply this Google Grouper rule to alt.even.worse.infestation.of.google-groupers you would put that group's name between the brackets. Note that for Xnews you'd also put a backslash before each of the dots in the group name - see the scoring.txt file Xnews provides in its main directory.

The next line tells slrn/Pan/Xnews to assign a score of -9999 to any posts that trigger the subsequent condition [s]. By default, slrn/Pan/Xnews hide from view posts scored -9999. The two colons after Score mean "or", so the rule will be triggered independently by both Google Groupers and WebTVers.

The first condition is obviously triggered by Google Groupers -- remember the distinctive googlegroups in their MIDs. Mission accomplished. Save the file and enjoy an improved Usenet. If your senile Aunt Beulah uses WebTV and you don't wish to use the WebTV condition, just eliminate that line. It's just a free bonus from The Usenet Improvement Project.

Note: Instruction on the installation and general operation of the various programs discussed here is beyond the scope of this website. The Project is about the Google Groups posting problem, and how to obtain relief from its symptoms through precision filtering of posts originating there. For assistance with the installation and general operation of these programs, please check the usual channels for such information: their documentation (manuals and help files); FAQs and other online resources; and, if necessary and those sources have been exhausted, the excellent Usenet group news.software.readers.