From: martin@address-in-sig.invalid   
      
   On Wed, 08 Feb 2017 10:02:16 -0800, The old geezer wrote:   
      
   > All of it....   
      
   OK. I don't remember seeing any ancient posts resurface before Google   
   bought Deja Vue, who wrote the web application now known as Google   
   Groups. This is because NNTP servers expired posts after about 3 months   
   by deleting them, so there was no possibility of older posts reappearing.   
      
   Deja Vue provided a service to newsgroup subscribers by reading all   
   newsgroups and archiving their posts in a non-expiring, searchable   
   database. Again, this was not a source of old posts because the only way   
   to see them was to use the Deja Vue web app to search the database and   
   display what it found.   
      
   After a new years Google bought Deja Vue and its database and set about   
   extending the search tool so it could also read and post to newsgroups as   
   well as searching the newsgroup archive.   
      
   Unfortunately, somebody in Google seems to have thought that it would be   
   really neat if archive searchers could also *reply* to posts they had dug   
   out of the archive. In fact that is a really stupid idea because, while   
   it is often useful to be able to search for and read old posts, posting a   
   reply to them causes confusion in the news group while making anybody who   
   replies to a years old message look like a numpty. It would be much   
   better to start a new thread with a message saying something like:   
      
   "Back in 1999 Joe Poster asked about ...blah blah blah... Can anybody   
   tell me .........".   
      
   I seldom use Google Groups because I find it to be a much clumsier and   
   slower way to read posts from subscribed newsgroups than using a proper   
   newsreader such as Pan (for Linux) or Forte's Agent (for Windows). The   
   only use I have to Google Groups is when I need to find an old post, and   
   that only happens every decade or so. I use the Internet Archive more   
   often than I use Google Groups and even that's quite infrequent.   
      
   Izzat better?   
      
      
   --   
   martin@   | Martin Gregorie   
   gregorie. | Essex, UK   
   org       |   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)