Managing Google Groups headaches

[Cameron Simpson]

On 28Nov2013 19:46, Arif Khokar <akhokar1234 at wvu.edu> wrote:
> The problem with just using email is that it's a bit more difficult
> to browse archived posts to this group.  After I subscribed to this
> group (comp.lang.python) using my news client, I could immediately
> browse posts made as far back as April.

I vastly prefer email.

My first act on joining any mailing list is to download the entire
archive into my local mail store. I have a script for this, for
mailman at least.

Example:

  get-mailman-archive http://mail.python.org/pipermail/pythonmac-sig/ >python-mac.mbox

I then suck the whole thing into the folder to which future list
posts will get filed. That way I have the whole archive, and it is
local, and I can examine it with whatever tools take my fancy
(mairix, mutt, grep, etc).

Most mailman lists make their archives readily available.

This cannot be said for the travesty that is Google Groups, and in
fact almost any other list/group/forum run with other software.

Really, most mailing list archives are easily small enough to do
this routinely.

Happy to assist anyone with scripts etc.

Cheers,
-- 
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au>

Carpe Daemon - Seize the Background Process
        - Paul Tomblin <ab401 at freenet2.carleton.ca>