Jo-Anne wrote:
> I just tried to post in Outlook Express to the newsgroup
> microsoft.public.security.homeusers and found that it and
> microsoft.public.security.virus are no longer available from Microsoft.
> Since I haven't yet set up another account, I was going to post my question
> through Google Groups. However, I noticed the warning there that my email
> address would become public if I posted. Is there any way to disguise one's
> email address in groups in Internet Explorer--as one can in OE?
>
> I'm using WinXP fully updated on all of my computers.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Jo-Anne
So create another newsgroup-posting Gmail account. Use it when you want
to use Google Groups. Just because you created a Gmail account doesn't
mean you have to poll it for new e-mails; however, an idle account will
eventually expire but if you use it often enough for your newsgroup
posts then your Gmail account remains active. You could also define a
server-side filter to simply discard all e-mails sent to that
newsgroups-only Gmail account to help Google not waste the disk space to
store them.
If you actually want to use the Gmail account to move offline some
newsgroup discussion (i.e., rudely rip it away from the newsgroup to
continue the discussion via e-mail), you could require that some special
string be included in the Subject header. If an e-mail arrives in your
mailbox without that passcode in the Subject then it gets immediately
discarded. Users can see your instructions for including the passcode
in the Subject in your signature but spambots roaming the newsgroups to
harvest e-mail addresses can't follow the instructions in your
signature.
With a local NNTP client, you can munge your e-mail address. You can't
do that when using Gmail's webnews-for-boobs interface to Usenet.
You're stuck using whatever Gmail account you logged on with. So use a
separate Gmail account used only for when you, to get grouped with all
their other GG boobs, decide to use their webnews client. Then add a
signature if and when you want to note in some of your posts that you
are willing to take the discussion offline via e-mail and that those
respondents must insert a passcode string in the Subject header.
You would post using:
From: <yournewsgrouponlyaccount>@gmail.com
<body of post>
--
To send e-mail, append "##JA78@@" to Subject; otherwise, e-mails are
immediately discarded.
I used an example passcode string above. Use whatever you feel like but
which is highly unlikely to be a legitimate string you ever see in the
Subject header. Don't make it too long to irritate real humans that
want to send you e-mail but just long enough to ensure it is a string
that is not likely to ever appear in legitimate e-mails. For the
server-side filter, use something like:
Matches: -{Subject:##JA78@@}
With a real client, there wouldn't be a problem using non-alphanumeric
characters in the string. I believe that Google strips out those
characters in a search (and why Google searching sucks when you *do*
want to specify a non-alphanumeric in a search, like "--i++" when you
want to find articles mentioning pre-decrementing and then
post-incrementing a variable). So you'll probably have to use something
other than the example "##JA78@@". Maybe your moniker spelled
backwards, like "ennaoj". I'm not big on using Gmail nor on Google's
special search parameters so maybe someone else can come up with a
better passcode on which Google's search will actually work.
As I recall, Google Groups doesn't let you configure a signature to
automatically add to your posts when using their webnews-for-boobs
client, so you'll have to add it when you want to note how Usenetters
can send you e-mail. If you use a 3rd party clipboard manager, like
ClipMate or ClipMagic, you can save canned content that you can later
paste into any document, like your newsgroup posts.
Even if some asshole submits your newsgroups-only e-mail address to some
spammers mailing list, those spammers won't know to add the passcode to
the Subject header so their spam gets immediately discarded from your
Gmail account by your server-side rule. Basically you are creating an
exclusively accessed e-mail account where only e-mails that are
passcoded are allowed to remain in the mailbox. They'll arrive but get
immediately trashed.
So if you feel compelled to get lumped in with the Google Grouping boob
crowd by using Google's webnews-for-boobs interface to Usenet, I'd
suggest creating a separate Gmail account just for when you post to
newsgroups. If you never want to take discussions offline via e-mail
then simply never bother to look at what e-mails are in that Gmail
account, or use a server-side filter that discards every e-mail that
gets received there. An easy way would be to add 2 filters: one that
looks for "a" in the Subject and another that looks for "Doesn't have:
subject:a" so you're looking for a Subject that does and doesn't have
"a" which is impossible to satisfy both). If you do want to use that
special-use Gmail account to take discussions offline then use the
passcode idea to only get e-mails from real humans, not bots or mailing
lists, because they would've had to follow your instructions in your
signature to append the passcode.
Why the hell would you want to use Google Groups to post? You already
know that many users already killfile the Google Groupers since that is
a source of spam in newsgroups along with the general tendency of those
posters submitting knee-jerk posts and who are too lazy to do any of
their own research and want us to change their diapers for them, too.
The webnews-for-boobs interface providing by Google Groups is nowhere as
potent as using a real newsreader client on your own host connecting to
an NNTP server. Why not use a free NNTP server to access Usenet, like
Albasani or Eternal-September, or a really cheap one, like
individual.net ($16USD/yr)? Microsoft's NNTP server only carried the
microsoft.public.* newsgroups but the others (free or paid) carry those
groups and much more. The free NNTP servers only carry text groups but
then so did the free Microsoft NNTP server.