Is this newsgroup dying?

vzlion wrote:

If so it shioyld be changed to rec.politics. This is suppose to be
about aviation, not politics. If it's to survive it needs a monitor to

I have a few tricks to cut down wasted time in newsgroups. They work
in Netscape, and I assume other software has these capabilities.

Use a narrow Subject column in your message list. That lets you scan
it quicker. I follow more than 60 newsgroups and don't have time for
long-winded subject lines.

Configure the newsreader to display threads in "collapsed" form. I.e.,
no matter how many messages in the thread, it occupies one line in the
message list. This tremendously declutters your screen. Click the +
sign on the left side of the subject line to expand any thread that
looks interesting. When the thread's expanded you can see all its
messages.

Use the Ignore Thread command on the useless threads. In Netscape,
when viewing the message list, select a thread and hit the k key.
You'll never see that thread again. (There is an command to make all
threads, including ignored, visible.) The highlight automatically
jumps down to the next thread containing an unread message, whereupon
you hit k again. You can take advantage of this by holding k down so
it repeats, "machine gunning" all remaining threads. It will hit any
thread with an unread message, so if you skip some replies (I do that
if there are a great many), do the Mark Thread Read command to shield
that thread from the machine gun.

Working this way I can get through r.a.m. in less than 10 seconds and
move on to the next group. Of course it takes longer on those
occasions when there's something here worth reading!

--

Paul Hirose
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