Vista - Missing messages

I know this was discussed before but I can't remember if there was
resolution or not. I keep missing original messages, apparently ones that
are posted on the web forum, not really sure though. So how was it
addressed, or was it ever? A lot of the "Re:" postings don't include the
original message, so the response is basically useless. I tried doing a
search, but of course couldn't find anything.

Thanks
--
©LarryEº

"©LarryEº" <me@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CB5312FE-74D9-42A7-B8BD-AFECB4CE47B4@xxxxxxI have always seen some of this. I believe there are several reasons,
but the primary one (I believe) is likely your newsgroup server. I was
seeing a vary large number of missing messages, including some of my own
even some of my own that had responses to, and I have not use the web
interface. It seems to be better for me now, but I suspect that it was an
issue with my local provider and their server.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

"Joseph Meehan" <sligoNoSPAMjoe@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u8NSTn$kIHA.536@xxxxxx
Let me add: Many of the RE: 's I see are responses to senders or to
SPAM that I have blocked.


--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

/©LarryEº/ said:You might investigate switching to a Mozilla-based mail client, such as
Thunderbird or the SeaMonkey suite (Firefox-like browser and mail/news
all-in-one).

Then install the Mheny add-on (extension). It makes article references
in news posts clickable, which in most cases brings up the original
article in the browser. Very handy, when posts have not been quoted,
and earlier comments have either been deleted or expired.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2516

/dev@xxxxxx/ said:Looking further, I see that a more direct approach (via a Mozilla
product) may be...
http://messageidfinder.mozdev.org/installation.html#

Check it out.

"©LarryEº" <me@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CB5312FE-74D9-42A7-B8BD-AFECB4CE47B4@xxxxxxYou may want to check if you have set up a rule to killfile all the messages
with return addresses ending in @discussions.microsoft.com, which is the
type I believe is used for messages entered through the web forum.

Hi, Larry.

There are two reasons that I know of that cause this problem.

The first is easy to fix: Tools | Options | Read - UNcheck the setting for
Get ___ headers at a time. Many newsgroups - like vista.general - get a
thousand or more posts per day, so if you leave it at the default 300,
you'll miss more than 2/3 of the posts. In a busy newsgroup, even the
maximum of 1,000 headers will miss some unless you check several times a
day. Uncheck the box and you'll get ALL of them. Even with broadband, this
can take a while on your first session, playing catch-up; after that, each
day's increment should be much quicker. Unfortunately, this setting can't
be done on a per-newsgroup basis, but you can set individual newsgroups to
get All messages, or New messages only or Headers only. (I usually set it
to New at first, then to All when a particular newsgroup is caught up to
date.)

The second reason is one that I don't know how to fix. It is not malicious;
it probably does more good than harm; but it sure causes confusion!

When you see an apparently new thread that starts with "Re:" in the Subject
line of the original post, look at the domain from which it is posted. It
will likely say something like JonDoe@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net or
Drucifer.36no4h@xxxxxx-mx.forums.vistaheads.com, This kind of address indicates
that the poster is not connected directly to the Microsoft news servers. He
is using a "forum" such as Vistaheads, "Your Friendly Windows Vista
Community", http://www.vistaheads.com/. He probably does not even know that
his post will appear on Microsoft's Communities or discussion groups or
these newsgroups. But those forums relay their posts to these newsgroups
via something called the "vBulletin USENET gateway". That's how we read the
message that was not posted here at all.

So far, so good. We read the question and, often, post a useful response
here in this newsgroup. What we don't realize is that our message is
"slurped" from here by that forum and posted on Vistaheads or whatever as
though we had read the question THERE and posted our reply THERE! So, we
may be "frequent posters" on Vistaheads, even though we have never visited
that forum and may not even know that it exists! Credit to Microsoft may be
on the Vistaheads page somewhere, but it is not easy to spot. What are easy
to spot are the many "Ads by Google" and other such paid content. In other
words, the owners of Vistaheads and similar forums are making money from the
help that we offer free in the newsgroups that Microsoft freely provides to
anyone and everyone.

This practice is good because it disseminates solutions widely and helps a
lot of people who subscribe to those forums and might not know that these
newsgroups (or Communities) exist. And many experts and other good guys do
hang out in those forums and often provide answers and solutions that are as
good as - or sometimes even better than - the responses here. But the
practice is bad because of the problem that you - and many others - have
pointed out. In the process of relaying messages and responses back and
forth between these original newsgroups and those forums, messages get
delayed or out of sequence or simply lost in transmission. And we often see
the disjointed and incoherent conversations like the ones you are
complaining about. In the Vistaheads or other forum, the "member" sees the
thread in a browser interface, so he can read the context while posting his
question - so he doesn't bother to quote any of that context when posting.
In the forum, other readers can put his post into context. But when his
post gets relayed to here, the context does not come along. And we are left
scratching our heads, wondering what "the exact same problem" might have
been. :>(


As I said, I don't know how to fix this. I don't want to kill Vistaheads
and the other such forums because they provide a very useful service.
(Although it does irritate me that they make money from posts that I - and
many others here - may have spent hours writing to give away freely.) Many
users don't know about these newsgroups or Usenet or newsreaders at all, and
those forums provide a good way for them to get help. I just wish there was
a way to keep the threads coherent and complete, no matter whether they
originate here or there.

Given the current situation, when I see such a disembodied post here, I
sometimes try to help, but I often just skip it, hoping that other
subscribers to that forum can solve the poster's problem - which I often
cannot even identify.

Sorry, Larry. Didn't mean to turn this into a book. But there are others
"reading over our shoulders" who might need the fuller explanation. And no
matter how many times it has been posted, there are always new members who
haven't see it before.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"©LarryEº" <me@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CB5312FE-74D9-42A7-B8BD-AFECB4CE47B4@xxxxxx

Wow, R.C. thank you very much for that very detailed answer. I, and I'm
sure many others, really appreciate the time you spent explaining
everything. If you don't mink, I would like to copy/paste it into Wordpad
just in case anyone else ever needs an answer to the same question. It'll
save you the bother of having to re-write the whole thing. I'll wait for
your ok though before doing that.

Regards,
--
©LarryEº

"R. C. White" <rc@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:453BE5F0-C1FD-4B3B-88C2-710403AED452@xxxxxx

Hi, Larry.

It's OK by me. After all, as we know, everything we post on Usenet
(including this Microsoft public news server) is fair game and can be read
(and copied) by anyone in the world with a news reader. Or with a browser,
after it has been slurped onto a web page, as those forums continue to
prove. Or in Microsoft Communities. And, like you and everybody else, my
intent in posting anything here is that it be read.

My only caveat is that I'm no expert on this subject, so some of my comments
might need correction by someone - including several of the regulars here -
who really are experts. In fact, some of the regulars here are also
regulars - or even administrators - on those forums.

As I said, my feelings are quite mixed. I'm glad those forums spread
helpful information far and wide. They are valuable resources for all of
us. But I regret that the system for doing so results so often in
disjointed, incoherent threads here. And I'm not clear on the ethics of
slurping the freely-given work of volunteers and posting it - too often
without clearly stating the source - on a website that generates revenue for
the slurper.

Those forum operators who frequent this newsgroup are invited to comment, of
course. Several of them also generously volunteer their own advice (most of
it more expert than mine) here, too. They obviously have opinions and the
right to voice them.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"©LarryEº" <me@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A01FF688-2EDF-4BDD-B4B4-2EDB3D01CE16@xxxxxx

"©LarryEº" <me@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CB5312FE-74D9-42A7-B8BD-AFECB4CE47B4@xxxxxx
How were you searching? For what?

Here is a recent answer to the same question I gave
to an OE user.

http://groups.google.com/group/micro...b1098cdf105cb4

(via Google Groups search for
author:aldwinckle references "message-ID" group:microsoft.*
- sorted by date
)

Give a specific example if you need help doing an analysis
of one.


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---