newsgoups and "RE:"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Azy
  • Start date Start date
A

Azy

Hi, I like to read these NG's using outlook Xpress. But in some forums, when
one presses the + sign with the "re", the response &/or question after
folows.
It is hard to follow what the original problem was & who the original
person who posted was.
then there are the regular posts that state a question and one clicks on the
+ sign and can read away.
IS there a setting I need to do in OE to change this. Or are people doing a
new post instead of replying to the same thread? I am stuck on this. any
ideas, thanks
 
Hi, I like to read these NG's using outlook Xpress. But in some forums, when
one presses the + sign with the "re", the response &/or question after
folows.
It is hard to follow what the original problem was & who the original
person who posted was.
then there are the regular posts that state a question and one clicks on the
+ sign and can read away.
IS there a setting I need to do in OE to change this. Or are people doing a
new post instead of replying to the same thread? I am stuck on this. any
ideas, thanks
Click to expand...

Some reasons for orphaned replies:
-Sometimes replies don't thread properly.
-Older posts (original questions and earlier replies) may have been removed
from extra busy groups.
-View settings: View unread will "hide" read posts. Toggling back to View
All will give you a list of all headers in a thread.)
-Settings in OE may have removed older posts from the message store. (See
mrtee's reply).
-Default setting in OE is to download 300 headers at a time. This settings
will not get all headers in a group and possibly not all messages in a
single thread. You can uncheck this box to have OE download all available
headers.
 
Hi, Azy.

To add to Sharon and mrtee's comments...

There are at least a couple of places where newsgroup messages are stored,
and any of those places may be set to delete messages after some period of
time. First, of course, is on Microsoft's news server, which stores them
for at least 90 days and sometimes for years. Second - maybe - is any
in-between news server that might get the messages from Microsoft and relay
them to you; any such server (such as the one your ISP uses for Usenet) may
also dump messages after some time. Finally is your own Message Store that
OE keeps on your own hard drive - and is the only one that you can directly
control.

(If you are NOT connecting directly to Microsoft's public news server -
which is free and does not require you to log on - you can bypass the
relaying server (which might delay, mis-thread or lose posts) by clicking
here:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics

That should start OE (if it's not already running), create the News Account
for the MS server in your OE (if you don't already have that account),
connect to this NG, download the 300 newest headers and show you the latest
one. In other words, it should bring you right back here.)

Then click Tools | Options... and configure your copy of OE to suit
yourself. As Sharon said, in an active newsgroup like this one, with far
more than 300 posts per day, the default setting is sure to miss many
messages. Click the Read tab and increase the default 300 to as many as
1000 - or remove the check box to get them ALL (but be prepared for a long
wait in an active NG). Also, you can right-click on the NG name in the
Folders list and change the Synchronization Settings. Then, as mrtee said,
click the Maintenance tab and change the default for Delete news messages
___ days after being downloaded. Mine is set to 32 days, so I see all
messages I've downloaded in the past month. (The messages may actually have
been posted a year ago, but they stay on my HD for a month after I download
them.)

There are several other settings to customize how YOUR copy of OE handles
things on YOUR computer. Just explore and try different settings until OE
works the way you like. ;<)

RC
 
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