What's the problem with alt.usage.english?

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athel_cb@yahoo.co.uk - 12 Jan 2007 11:33 GMT

I send this here because at least some of the people who post at
alt.usage.english also post here.

Since 9th January (a day when Google groups was planning scheduled
maintenance) I have been unable to post to alt.usage.english, and
apparently no one else has, either, as there are no postings since that
date. Does anyone have any information about what has happened?

athel

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Leslie Danks - 12 Jan 2007 13:04 GMT

> I send this here because at least some of the people who post at
> alt.usage.english also post here.
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> apparently no one else has, either, as there are no postings since that
> date. Does anyone have any information about what has happened?

Everything's been working normally for me. It must be something to do with
Google Groups.

Here is an exchange from today on AUE:
(Post from: Matthew Huntbach)
[quote]
On Fri, 12 Jan 2007, the Omrud wrote:

> Arcadianrises@aol.com had it:

>> Did aue expire on January 9, 2007?
>>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> AUE is working normally with the usual number of posts each day.

Google groups seems to have stopped adding new posts to AUE on January 9.
[endquote]

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Les

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Bob Cunningham - 12 Jan 2007 13:30 GMT

> I send this here because at least some of the people who post at
> alt.usage.english also post here.

> Since 9th January (a day when Google groups was planning scheduled
> maintenance) I have been unable to post to alt.usage.english, and
> apparently no one else has, either, as there are no postings since that
> date. Does anyone have any information about what has happened?

I don't have any information about what was happened, except
to say that Google Groups is reporting no messages posted
after 9 January to any newsgroup I've just tried, including
alt.english.usage, uk.culture.language.english,
soc.culture.scottish, and rec.games.chess.misc.

Does anyone know of any newsgroup for which Google Groups
reports postings after 9 January?

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athel_cb@yahoo.co.uk - 12 Jan 2007 14:11 GMT

> > I send this here because at least some of the people who post at
> > alt.usage.english also post here.
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> Does anyone know of any newsgroup for which Google Groups
> reports postings after 9 January?

Well yes, this one, for example. However, there are certainly others
that are just as dead as alt.english.usage. No doubt this is a good
time to reactivate my long-term intention of installing a proper
newsreader. I only hope that Google Groups' "improved" service is not
as much of a step backwards as their last one, when they decided to
force everyone to use their horrible beta whether they liked it or not.

athel

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athel_cb@yahoo.co.uk - 12 Jan 2007 14:14 GMT

athel...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

[ ... ]

> Well yes, this one, for example. However, there are certainly others
> that are just as dead as alt.english.usage. No doubt this is a good
> time to reactivate my long-term intention of installing a proper
> newsreader. I only hope that Google Groups' "improved" service is not
> as much of a step backwards as their last one, when they decided to
> force everyone to use their horrible beta whether they liked it or not.

Amazing: two minutes before I posted the above alt.english.usage was as
dead as ever. Two minutes afterwards it had come back to life.

a.

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athel_cb@yahoo.co.uk - 12 Jan 2007 14:17 GMT

athel...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> athel...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> Amazing: two minutes before I posted the above alt.english.usage was as
> dead as ever. Two minutes afterwards it had come back to life.

Hmm. I spoke too soon. It now lists messages after 9th January, but it
doesn't allow you to read them, saying "Sorry, we were unable to find
the topic you requested".

a.

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HVS - 12 Jan 2007 14:19 GMT

On 12 Jan 2007, wrote

> athel...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>> athel...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> but it doesn't allow you to read them, saying "Sorry, we were
> unable to find the topic you requested".

You were right the first time: real newsreader time....

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Cheers, Harvey

Canadian and British English, indiscriminately mixed
For e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van

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Bob Cunningham - 12 Jan 2007 18:25 GMT

> > > I send this here because at least some of the people who post at
> > > alt.usage.english also post here.

> > > Since 9th January (a day when Google groups was planning scheduled
> > > maintenance) I have been unable to post to alt.usage.english, and
> > > apparently no one else has, either, as there are no postings since that
> > > date. Does anyone have any information about what has happened?

> > I don't have any information about what was happened, except
> > to say that Google Groups is reporting no messages posted
> > after 9 January to any newsgroup I've just tried, including
> > alt.english.usage, uk.culture.language.english,
> > soc.culture.scottish, and rec.games.chess.misc.

> > Does anyone know of any newsgroup for which Google Groups
> > reports postings after 9 January?

> Well yes, this one, for example.

Checking the header to be sure, I see that your "this one"
is alt.english.usage. I'm still getting zilch for it from
Google Groups after 9 January.

> However, there are certainly others
> that are just as dead as alt.english.usage.

But alt.english.usage is the one you just said others are as
dead as. Looks like your fingers weren't typing what you
meant for them to type.

Anyway, alt.usage.english and alt.english.usage are both
still yielding nothing at Google Groups.

> No doubt this is a good
> time to reactivate my long-term intention of installing a proper
> newsreader.

If I had to use Google Groups as my only newsreader, I
wouldn't even try to use Usenet. It's practically worthless
as a newsreader but quite valuable as a searchable archive.

> I only hope that Google Groups' "improved" service is not
> as much of a step backwards as their last one, when they decided to
> force everyone to use their horrible beta whether they liked it or not.

I see that one highly respected user of Mac software uses a
newsreader called MacSoup. You can read about MacSoup, and
download it, at http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/1011 .

It's $20 shareware.

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Odysseus - 13 Jan 2007 02:44 GMT

<snip>

> I see that one highly respected user of Mac software uses a
> newsreader called MacSoup. You can read about MacSoup, and
> download it, at http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/1011 .
>
> It's $20 shareware.

I use MT-Newswatcher (in Mac OS 9 and X both); it has powerful filtering
features, pretty well a necessity in some of the groups I read. It
occasionally has problems with 'foreign' or misidentified character
sets, and with certain binary encodings, but overall I've been quite
happy with it.

<http://www.smfr.org/mtnw/> -- freeware, donations requested.

Signature

Odysseus

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athel_cb@yahoo.co.uk - 16 Jan 2007 10:03 GMT

[ ... ]

> > > Does anyone know of any newsgroup for which Google Groups
> > > reports postings after 9 January?
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> is alt.english.usage. I'm still getting zilch for it from
> Google Groups after 9 January.

Very curious. aeu was definitely working normally for me at a time when
aue was not working at all.

> > However, there are certainly others
> > that are just as dead as alt.english.usage.
>
> But alt.english.usage is the one you just said others are as
> dead as. Looks like your fingers weren't typing what you
> meant for them to type.

Indeed. Getting old.

> Anyway, alt.usage.english and alt.english.usage are both
> still yielding nothing at Google Groups.
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> It's $20 shareware.

Well, I can afford the $20, but the problem is elsewhere. I have, in
fact, a perfectly good newsreader installed, but I can't use it because
none of the experts around here have been able to tell me how to
connect to an adequate news server through the network that I have at
work. (I'm not saying the problem can't be solved, just that solving it
has so far, probably wrongly, seemed like more trouble than sticking
with Google.)

However, as others have mentioned Teranews recently in other threads, I
followed the link today to see how it worked. From their own
description it sounds ideal, but I'd be interested in knowing the
opinions of people who have used it.

a.

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John Dean - 12 Jan 2007 15:10 GMT

>> I send this here because at least some of the people who post at
>> alt.usage.english also post here.
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> Does anyone know of any newsgroup for which Google Groups
> reports postings after 9 January?

Very few. Most are screwed. here's a recent message from Google on the
subject:

http://groups.google.com/group/Is-Something-Broken/browse_frm/thread/2d14859c2b7
98561/f1c2abf22a533966#f1c2abf22a533966
Google Groups Guide - view profile
Date: Fri, Jan 12 2007 12:37 am

Hi everyone, Thank you all for reporting these posting problems. We're
looking into this right now and I'm sorry for the inconveniences your
groups are experiencing. I understand your frustration and I appreciate
your understanding while we're working on this issue.

Signature

John Dean
Oxford

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

What's the problem with alt.usage.english?