News server for c.l.p.

[Grant Griffin]

Alex Martelli wrote:
> 
> "Tom" <nospam at nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:OyqN5.42557$78.13171480 at news3.rdc1.on.home.com...
> > Looks interesting.
> >
> > But it kinda looks like its for spammers, or people who want to download
> > porno pics (features like 'no posting limits', and 'multimedia archives').

Naw, whoever told you that was just FUDding you.

> 
> I've been using a Newsguy 'Basic Account' since March, and I'm
> reasonably satisfied
...

Well bust my buttons!!!  Alex and I finally agree on something!  (Except
that I'm "very satisfied" rather than "reasonably satisfied" with
Newsguy. <wink>)  I've used Newsguy for just over a year (in fact, I
just renewed), and the improvement in service compared to my local ISP
has been *very well* worth the $25 per year.  Specifically, the news
server on my local ISP got so it was missing quite a lot of messages,
but I haven't seen evidence of Newsguy missing *any* messages over the
past year.  (Alex will probably tell you that Newsguy, like all news
servers, _does_ sometimes miss messages, but the point remains that *I*
haven't seen any evidence of that. <wink>)

One "feature" of Newsguy that I don't quite like is that its expiration
time for posts is just over a month, rather than about a week in the
case of my local ISP.  On paper, that sounds like a benefit, but in
practice, it means I have to keep using the "Mark Read by Date" feature
of my newsreader to keep the forrest clear of its trees.  (If I weren't
against opposed to clear-cutting, I'd probably just "Mark All Read". ;-)

I sometimes use the "Direct Read News" (DRN) feature of Newsguy, which
allows posting via a browser.  It could be a little slicker, but it
isn't bad overall.  Last time I tried the search feature of Newsguy, it
searched only within current, unexpired messages (unlike Deja, in which
the search goes back to the beginning of time...er...I mean May 15,
1999. ;-)  Therefore, I think the merit of Newsguy's search engine is
only to find a current message that you wish to respond to via the web. 
(And to _this_ reporter, that's clearly not worth paying an extra $45
per year.)

frugal-ly y'rs,

=g2
-- 
_____________________________________________________________________

Grant R. Griffin                                       g2 at dspguru.com
Publisher of dspGuru                           http://www.dspguru.com
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