On Thursday, February 22, 2018 at 7:00:04 AM UTC-8, OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
We are seeing an increased amount of SPAM on RAS (rec.aviation.soaring). I have seen this before on other rec.xxx.xxx network news groups and the group becomes basically 100% SPAM. A great shame. We need to fight to keep RAS a good place for discussions.

Many groups have simply exited network news altogether and gone to web based user group forums so that they can control who is allowed to use the system (and kick idiots off). A Google Group is such a forum with controls (I don't recommend Yahoo groups). Some forums are created as money makers and can be filled with ads. Bottom line, this requires someone to create such a thing and administer it.

Believe it or not the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) goes all the way back to 1986, the very beginnings of the Internet! It was designed from the get-go to be open to anyone. Network neutrality as a foundation of the Internet! What can be done to stop SPAM? As I understand it nothing can be done. There is, by design, no way to prevent someone from posting whatever they want to a network news group.

We cannot prevent this person (probably a bot in reality) from posting their drivel to RAS (and in all likelihood also to every other network news group too). Like all SPAM you have to wonder how profitable it really is (but has the advantage of being nearly free to implement). Sending this nefarious person a "why are you doing this?" message is totally useless.

So, what effective things can be done? Here are my thoughts from easy to illegal;

1) Ignore it. Maybe it will just fade away as I have seen in the past.

2) Use Google to read RAS at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!fo...iation.soaring. This is different than creating a new Google group which allows user controls. I use the Google "report abuse" button to mark the entry as SPAM. This, at the very least, replaces the entry with "This topic has been hidden because you reported it for abuse". I believe that if enough people report abuse of an article, then Google blocks these messages for everyone. But this is somewhat tedious.

3) Use a standalone Network News reader application that allows filtering out certain subjects, authors or in other ways. This is available on any device down to smart phones (watches?). The downside is you have to set this up on all your devices (rather than using a web site). I don't have any recent experience with the newest batch of readers. Anyone have some ideas about good readers?

4) Go somewhere else and create a forum to replace RAS network news such as a new Google Group. This requires a coordinated administration.

4) Hire an Italian from Chicago to knock off the offending idiot. Wait a minute, I AM AN ITALIAN FROM CHICAGO! Ok, so that's a very bad idea. Politically incorrect. Ignore this. Please. (as I said anyone can say anything on network news)

Any other (good) ideas?

Thanks, John (OHM Ω)

A good start would be for everyone to stop. replying. to the spam. Every time someone tries to 'yell at the bad person' it bumps that subject back to the top and often inspires a new person to step up and take a swing while the rest of us sigh and watch the cycle repeat like a groundhog day loop but somehow dumber.