How to sort NG by latest post to threads, not first post?
 

I don't think you can do what you want.

If you group messages by conversations, then sorting by date will sort
by the first DISPLAYED message in the thread. If you've hidden Read
messages, that will sort by the first unread message of the thread. But
I'm guessing you want the whole thread displayed (read and unread) so
that won't help much.

--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm



"JoeU2004" wrote in message
...
Normally, it appears that OE6 sorts newsgroup postings by the
date of the first message of a thread ("conversation").

I would like OE6 to sort newsgroup threads based on the date
of the most-recent message to each thread.

Can that be done?

I know that I can set the "watch" flag and view "sort by watch".
That's not the same thing.

How to sort NG by latest post to threads, not first post?
 

On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:41:47 -0800, JoeU2004 wrote:

Normally, it appears that OE6 sorts newsgroup postings by the
date of the first message of a thread ("conversation").

I would like OE6 to sort newsgroup threads based on the date
of the most-recent message to each thread.

Can that be done?

I know that I can set the "watch" flag and view "sort by watch".
That's not the same thing.

I don't know of any newsreader which sorts the article list by date of the
most recent followup. They all sort by the posting date of the original
article in the thread.

I understand that "watch" isn't the same as what you want, but it is all
that you have to approximate what you want: This is true for *any* news
reader that I know of.

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

How to sort NG by latest post to threads, not first post?
 

Normally, it appears that OE6 sorts newsgroup postings by the
date of the first message of a thread ("conversation").

I would like OE6 to sort newsgroup threads based on the date
of the most-recent message to each thread.

Can that be done?

I know that I can set the "watch" flag and view "sort by watch".
That's not the same thing.

How to sort NG by latest post to threads, not first post?
 

"Michael Santovec" :
I don't think you can do what you want.

As I expected. But....

If you've hidden Read messages, that will sort by
the first unread message of the thread.

I would like to experiment with this. But I don't understand the English.
Is "hidden" a verb or adjective in that sentence?

In either case, what steps must I take to step up that state?


----- original message -----

"Michael Santovec" wrote in message
...
I don't think you can do what you want.

If you group messages by conversations, then sorting by date will sort by
the first DISPLAYED message in the thread. If you've hidden Read
messages, that will sort by the first unread message of the thread. But
I'm guessing you want the whole thread displayed (read and unread) so that
won't help much.

--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm



"JoeU2004" wrote in message
...
Normally, it appears that OE6 sorts newsgroup postings by the
date of the first message of a thread ("conversation").

I would like OE6 to sort newsgroup threads based on the date
of the most-recent message to each thread.

Can that be done?

I know that I can set the "watch" flag and view "sort by watch".
That's not the same thing.

How to sort NG by latest post to threads, not first post?
 

"NormanM" wrote:
I don't know of any newsreader which sorts the
article list by date of the most recent followup.

FYI, Google Groups (web interface) provides that option. Also, I had used a
newsreader on a UNIX system that provided that option.

Without that feature, it seems like a nightmare to track updates to an
interesting NG.

As I mentioned, with OE6, we can sort by the "watch" flag. But first, that
requires that I set the "watch" flag for each interesting thread. And
second, that still does not indicate whether or not there were recent
contributions to the thread. Sometimes what catches my interest is not so
much the thread title, but a recent response -- sometimes the author, but
often just the fact that there is a response.

For example, after "watching" a thread for some time, I will remove the
"watch" flag in order to keep the focus on recent threads to "watch". But a
contribution a long time later might catch my interest. Actually, that
would be true whether or not I remove the "watch" flag. Eventually, the
"watch" list might become so long that I will notice changes in much earlier
threads.

It seems to me that by sorting only by the date of the first message in a
thread, I am forced to expand each (or all) threads and manually look for
recent changes. That's error-prone. If I had not read all follow-ups, even
the bold-face font is not sufficient to alert me to a recent change.

If I am overlooking an OE6 feature that would amelioriate that problem, I
would welcome the education.


----- original message ------

"NormanM" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:41:47 -0800, JoeU2004 wrote:

Normally, it appears that OE6 sorts newsgroup postings by the
date of the first message of a thread ("conversation").

I would like OE6 to sort newsgroup threads based on the date
of the most-recent message to each thread.

Can that be done?

I know that I can set the "watch" flag and view "sort by watch".
That's not the same thing.

I don't know of any newsreader which sorts the article list by date of the
most recent followup. They all sort by the posting date of the original
article in the thread.

I understand that "watch" isn't the same as what you want, but it is all
that you have to approximate what you want: This is true for *any* news
reader that I know of.

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

How to sort NG by latest post to threads, not first post?
 

"JoeU2004" wrote in message ...
Normally, it appears that OE6 sorts newsgroup postings by the
date of the first message of a thread ("conversation").

I would like OE6 to sort newsgroup threads based on the date
of the most-recent message to each thread.

Can that be done?


Not threads. But messages is very easy. Just turn off threading.
E.g. uncheck Group messages by conversation. Alt-V,V,G
Then if you are sorting by timestamp the latest message will be
either at the top or bottom depending on whether you are sorting
by descending or ascending (e.g. as seen with View, Sort by...
Alt-V,B). Then provided you use the (non-default) option
Automatically expand grouped messages (in Options, Read tab
Alt-T,O,Ctrl-Tab,x) you can systematically go through your
messages as threads by toggling threading back on when you
want to see a message in its thread context and toggling it back off
in order to find the next earliest message unthreaded.


I know that I can set the "watch" flag and view "sort by watch".
That's not the same thing.


No but that would be another way to help achieve your goal.
E.g. you could use Flag to mark all the latest messages while
they were ordered unthreaded. Then instead of toggling in and out
of Group messages by conversation (Alt-V,V,G) you might find
it easier to switch Views (e.g. using the Views bar to find the
next thread you wanted to look at. Etc.

Remember though that neither of these ideas works unless
threads are always expanded. E.g. messages which you can
see and mark while unthreaded can be subsumed by a much
earlier opening post and thus hidden and their positions lost
when threading is turned back on.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---

How to sort NG by latest post to threads, not first post?
 

Joe

hidden is past participle of verb hide.

In Outlook Express select View, Current View, Hide Read Messages.


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


JoeU2004 wrote:
"Michael Santovec" :
I don't think you can do what you want.

As I expected. But....

If you've hidden Read messages, that will sort by
the first unread message of the thread.

I would like to experiment with this. But I don't understand the
English. Is "hidden" a verb or adjective in that sentence?

In either case, what steps must I take to step up that state?


----- original message -----

"Michael Santovec" wrote in message
...
I don't think you can do what you want.

If you group messages by conversations, then sorting by date will
sort by the first DISPLAYED message in the thread. If you've hidden
Read messages, that will sort by the first unread message of the
thread. But I'm guessing you want the whole thread displayed (read
and unread) so that won't help much.

--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm



"JoeU2004" wrote in message
...
Normally, it appears that OE6 sorts newsgroup postings by the
date of the first message of a thread ("conversation").

I would like OE6 to sort newsgroup threads based on the date
of the most-recent message to each thread.

Can that be done?

I know that I can set the "watch" flag and view "sort by watch".
That's not the same thing.

How to sort NG by latest post to threads, not first post?
 

On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:13:31 -0800, JoeU2004 wrote:

"NormanM" wrote:

I don't know of any newsreader which sorts the
article list by date of the most recent followup.

FYI, Google Groups (web interface) provides that option. Also, I had used a
newsreader on a UNIX system that provided that option.

Google Groups isn't a news reader. It isn't even an NNTP service. I have not
checked out any Unix news readers.

Without that feature, it seems like a nightmare to track updates to an
interesting NG.

I manage.

If I am overlooking an OE6 feature that would amelioriate that problem, I
would welcome the education.

MSOE is a bare bones application. Doesn't really do anything very well,
except crash on corrupted data.

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

How to sort NG by latest post to threads, not first post?
 

"NormanM" wrote:
Google Groups isn't a news reader.

Of course, it is. It provides a browser interface to its news servers.


It isn't even an NNTP service.

That's a fairly narrow, and incorrect, definition of a news reader.

A news reader is any application or service that provides access to one or
more news servers. There is no requirement that NNTP be used between news
readers and servers. Even the Wikipedia explanation offers this point of
view, although I take exception to the Usenet limitation, to wit: "A
newsreader is an application program that reads articles on Usenet
(generally known as newsgroup), either directly from the news server's disks
or via the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)."

An __open__ news server must support NNTP between it and generic news
readers like OE, simply because that is the current standard. But the
Google news servers are not open, AFAIK. (Aside: If anyone knows an open
URL for the Google news servers, please let me know.)

Also, a __public__ news server (i.e. Usenet server) must support NNTP at the
backend in order to receive and distribute postings in public newsgroups.
(Arguably, the news server itself does not need to support NNTP at the
"backend", as long as some other network application does.)

A completely private news server is not required to use NNTP for
distribution. Generally, it is unlikely that it doesn't, since there is no
point in reinventing the wheel. But there are reasons not to use NNTP (e.g.
security; see SNNTP).

How to sort NG by latest post to threads, not first post?
 

On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:46:05 -0800, JoeU2004 wrote:

"NormanM" wrote:

Google Groups isn't a news reader.

Of course, it is. It provides a browser interface to its news servers.

The fact that Google provides a web (HTTP) server interface to their archive
of news articles does not make it a "news reader". Specifically, a news
reader is a local application running on your computer. If you are using a
web browser to access information, you are access an HTTP server, with an
HTTP reader.

It isn't even an NNTP service.

That's a fairly narrow, and incorrect, definition of a news reader.

NNTP is a protocol. HTTP is a protocol. Providing NNTP service means just
that: Running an NNTP server which is accessed via an NNTP client. Yes, very
narrow. However, anything wider than that is highly inaccurate.

A news reader is any application or service that provides access to one or
more news servers.

And which "news servers" are Google providing? A news server provides data
via the NNTP protocol; Google groups only provides HTTP access. That is a
"web server", not a "news server".

There is no requirement that NNTP be used between news
readers and servers.

If you are reading articles using an HTTP client, you are accessing an HTTP
server. That is web service, not news service.

Even the Wikipedia explanation offers this point of
view ...

And who made Wikipedia an authoritative source for anything?

... although I take exception to the Usenet limitation, to wit: "A
newsreader is an application program that reads articles on Usenet
(generally known as newsgroup), either directly from the news server's disks
or via the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)."

Why do you take exception? That is very accurate.

An __open__ news server must support NNTP between it and generic news
readers like OE, simply because that is the current standard. But the
Google news servers are not open, AFAIK. (Aside: If anyone knows an open
URL for the Google news servers, please let me know.)

Google is a web archive of Usenet articles. Web, not news. You can only use
a web client (HTTP) because that is all that they offer.

Also, a __public__ news server (i.e. Usenet server) must support NNTP at the
backend in order to receive and distribute postings in public newsgroups.
(Arguably, the news server itself does not need to support NNTP at the
"backend", as long as some other network application does.)

A completely private news server is not required to use NNTP for
distribution. Generally, it is unlikely that it doesn't, since there is no
point in reinventing the wheel. But there are reasons not to use NNTP (e.g.
security; see SNNTP).

NNTP, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, IMAP, SMTP: All are Internet protocols. You need the
appropriate servers and clients for access. If you are using an HTTP client
(web browser) for access, you are using a "web service", not a "news
service". What is going on at the back end is irrelevant. It is how you are
accessing the service which is relevant.

HTTP!=NNTP.

--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum