OT - Someone seems ...

[Pete Barrett]

...to have found a way to make this newsgroup almost unusable. Does
anyone have an answer to these rubbish posts on sensible threads?
Obviously, I can ignore the specific 'authors' of these posts, but it
only takes a change in the name to have them all show up again.

Anyone got any other ideas?

[Alex Milman]

Post by Pete Barrett
...to have found a way to make this newsgroup almost unusable. Does
anyone have an answer to these rubbish posts on sensible threads?
Obviously, I can ignore the specific 'authors' of these posts, but it
only takes a change in the name to have them all show up again.
Anyone got any other ideas?

Nope. I'm suffering from the same problem. Reported abuse but there were no results. Is there any way to make this group moderated?

[Dimensional Traveler]

Post by Alex Milman

Post by Pete Barrett
...to have found a way to make this newsgroup almost unusable. Does
anyone have an answer to these rubbish posts on sensible threads?
Obviously, I can ignore the specific 'authors' of these posts, but it
only takes a change in the name to have them all show up again.
Anyone got any other ideas?

Nope. I'm suffering from the same problem. Reported abuse but there were no results. Is there any way to make this group moderated?

In theory, yes, it can be made moderated. As a practical reality? I
doubt it.

[Ed Stasiak]

Alex Milman

Pete Barrett
Anyone got any other ideas?

The more participants there are in a newsgroup, the less of an issue spam is.

Sure, it still happens but it gets drowned out by on-topic posts.

Reported abuse but there were no results.

Nobody cares anymore, as there are too few people on Usenet nowadays.

Is there any way to make this group moderated?

My understanding is that you can’t moderate an existing newsgroup, you have
to create a new newsgroup; soc.history.what-if.moderated.

[Pete Barrett]

Post by Ed Stasiak

Alex Milman

Pete Barrett
Anyone got any other ideas?

The more participants there are in a newsgroup, the less of an issue spam is.
Sure, it still happens but it gets drowned out by on-topic posts.

The ordinary spam sits in its own thread, and all that's needed is to
ignore the thread. A nuisance, but I can live with it.

This type of spam, which is posted to an existing on-topic thread, is new
to me, and means that I come across the post in the middle of something I
may be interested in. What I don't understand is what the author of these
posts gets from it. I don't suppose anyone's checked the links to see if
there's anything nefarious in them? I certainly haven't.

Post by Ed Stasiak

Reported abuse but there were no results.

Nobody cares anymore, as there are too few people on Usenet nowadays.

Is there any way to make this group moderated?

My understanding is that you can’t moderate an existing newsgroup, you
have to create a new newsgroup; soc.history.what-if.moderated.

[Alex Milman]

Post by Pete Barrett

Post by Ed Stasiak

Alex Milman

Pete Barrett
Anyone got any other ideas?

The more participants there are in a newsgroup, the less of an issue spam is.
Sure, it still happens but it gets drowned out by on-topic posts.

The ordinary spam sits in its own thread, and all that's needed is to
ignore the thread. A nuisance, but I can live with it.
This type of spam, which is posted to an existing on-topic thread, is new
to me, and means that I come across the post in the middle of something I
may be interested in. What I don't understand is what the author of these
posts gets from it. I don't suppose anyone's checked the links to see if
there's anything nefarious in them? I certainly haven't.

It seems that some scumbag launched an automatic posting of crap to the active threads: the time stamps of the postings are practically the same. What this creature was trying to achieve I have no idea.

Post by Pete Barrett

Post by Ed Stasiak

Reported abuse but there were no results.

Nobody cares anymore, as there are too few people on Usenet nowadays.

Is there any way to make this group moderated?

My understanding is that you can’t moderate an existing newsgroup, you
have to create a new newsgroup; soc.history.what-if.moderated.

--
Pete BARRETT

[s***@yahoo.com]

Back in the 1980's there would be about a dozen of the more caring citizens who would work to establish a personal relationship with the pest.

[jerry kraus]

Post by Pete Barrett
...to have found a way to make this newsgroup almost unusable. Does
anyone have an answer to these rubbish posts on sensible threads?
Obviously, I can ignore the specific 'authors' of these posts, but it
only takes a change in the name to have them all show up again.
Anyone got any other ideas?
--
Pete BARRETT

It's mildly irritating, but, I don't find it difficult to ignore. Just filter it out. Who knows, maybe it will increase membership in the group? It's certainly increasing activity, isn't it?

[Rob]

it could be worse- I think its just links to shitposts instead of full shitpost content embedded.