OT:Google usenet search broken!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Achim Nolcken Lohse
  • Start date Start date
A

Achim Nolcken Lohse

Today I noticed that several postings made to another NG recently
(can.talk.guns) were not getting any response, so I did a Google
advanced usenet search to see whether my postings were actually
getting past my ISP's news server.

I searched for messages posted by me to the NG, first for the past 24
hours, then back as far as three months, and got zero hits.

However, this made no sense, since I had a response to a message
posted six weeks ago. So I expanded my search to include all messages
authored by me in all newsgroups over the past year, and got exactly
TWO hits! I tried it both with my full name, and again with only my
last name, and the results were the same.

Strangely, a Google WEB search on my name turned up dozens of
newsgroup posting withing the last year.

I did a cursory search on "google usenet problems" and variants
thereof, but found nothing bearing on this problem.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? And is there an alternative
search engine for usenet postings?
 
Today I noticed that several postings made to another NG recently
(can.talk.guns) were not getting any response, so I did a Google
advanced usenet search to see whether my postings were actually
getting past my ISP's news server.

I searched for messages posted by me to the NG, first for the past 24
hours, then back as far as three months, and got zero hits.

However, this made no sense,
Click to expand...

I did a search for the last 3 months for your name as author in that
newsgroup and got this result (8 messages):

Groups Results 1 - 4 of about 8 from 22 Jun 2004 to today for
group:can.talk.guns author:Achim author:Nolcken author:Lohse. (0.20
seconds)

So I think you have not entered your own name correctly in the author
field, or the newsgroup name in the newsgroup field.

Try again, at http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?hl=en

Look at the headers for a message from yourself, in your newsreader, do a
copy and paste of your own name, to get it entered exactly like it is
written in the google groups archive.
 
The bodies of the messages are not available there, just the headers.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Then they changed things since I used it last, though that was quite
some time ago. I wasted an afternoon chasing down decade-old posts of
mine made during college -- at least the ones for which I could remember
the old nyms/emails.
 
I did a search for the last 3 months for your name as author in that
newsgroup and got this result (8 messages):

Groups Results 1 - 4 of about 8 from 22 Jun 2004 to today for
group:can.talk.guns author:Achim author:Nolcken author:Lohse. (0.20
seconds)

So I think you have not entered your own name correctly in the author
field, or the newsgroup name in the newsgroup field.

Try again, at http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?hl=en

Look at the headers for a message from yourself, in your newsreader, do a
copy and paste of your own name, to get it entered exactly like it is
written in the google groups archive.
Click to expand...

After trying the search again today, I finally discovered the problem
- my IE Favourites entry for Google Advanced Groups search somehow got
configured to automatically enter "usenet search" in the FIND field of
the search page. So only postings that contained this expression (two
in the last year) were presented.

Thanks for your help.
 
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