Hi,
< note : perhaps the Outlook Express "Ignore Conversation" menu option under
Message will
meet your needs better than the technique described here : but it requires
you to view messages
by conversation, and, for my eyes, that doesn't work. By all means explore
the exotic and, imho,
poorly defined features of 'Ignore Conversation' if you normally use OExp in
the view by conversation mode ... and the arcane trick you will be required
to do if you wish to show READ
messages while still hiding IGNORED conversations (threads). imho ... imho
.... imho ... >
Let's say, for example, that you grow weary of opening alt.support.cancer
and seeing many messages of people flaming each over a post that originated
in a cross-posted message : responses from other newsgroups having no
relevance to alt.support.cancer are now cluttering up your news reader like
mosquitoes because the responders are also replying to all the newsgroups
the original message went to.
Assume :
1. You are using Windows XP or later, some flavour
2. You are using Outlook Express (you should upgrade quick if your version
is less than #6)
as your newsreader for Usenet news groups.
By way of example :
1. Let's say you don't want to see any more messages with the phrase
"Tobacco Companies" in the subject line, and you want to delete all such
messages you've already downloaded into Outlook Express.
2. Select one of the messages containing the phrase "Tobacco Companies" in
the subject line.
3. Mouse-up to the main menu of Outlook Express and under 'Message choose
the "Create Rule from Message" menu option.
4. The "New News Rule" dialog box will open up : you may wish to move it to
the center of the screen for readability.
5. Decide if you want to block such messages from only alt.support.cancer or
all groups you subscribe to.
6. In the top panel (there are three panels numbered 1-3, and a textbox
numbered 4) you'll see a list of choices (checkboxes) that let you focus
what will be deleted.
7. Usually the second item : "Where the From line contains people" is
checked by default, and is the only item checked.
8. Take a moment and study the items in the top panel.
9. For each checkbox you check (choice you make) you will note that the
content of Panel 3 changes and that a word will appear in the content of
Panel 3 that is underlined : when you click on the underlined word you get a
specific helper dialog that lets you easily select what people/groups/etc.
the action you wish to take will apply to.
10. I suggest you experiment like this just to get a feel for how it works :
a. select an "offending" message; we'll stick with the example of a thread
whose subject line
contains the words "Tobacco Companies," and assume you want to delete such
messages only from
alt.support.cancer.
b. open the "Create Rule from Message" menu choice under the main menu
'Messsage.
c. uncheck in Panel 1 the second checkbox whose text reads : "Where the
From line
contains people"
d. check the first checkbox in Panel 1 whose text reads : "Where the
message is
on specified newsgroup"
e. look in Panel 3 : and click on the underlined word "specified" : a
"Select Newsgroup" helper dialog appears.
f. find alt.support.cancer in the list of newsgroups show in this
helper dialogue, click on it, and click "Okay" to exit the dialogue.
g. Now you are "back" at the "New News Rule" dialog box :
check CheckBox 3 in Panel 1 whose text reads :
"Where the Subject Line contains specific words" :
Look down in Panel 3 and click on the underlined phrase
"contains specific words" : A "Type Specfic Words" dialogue
pops up and you enter the words you want to use as "keys"
to delete messages in the top textbox : when satisfied
you need to click the 'Add button to the right of this
textbox. Then click "Okay" to exit the helper dialog
and return to the main rules dialog.
h. now look at Panel 2 in the main rules dialog and select
the Action you want to apply when a message that matches
your criteria appears. In this case we'll choose 'Delete'
and click "Okay" to finish defining the rule. You should
get a confirmation dialog from Outlook Expresss saying the
Rule was defined successfully.
11. Once you've created a rule, you may now wish to apply it retroactively
to all messages that matches the rule in your current folder for that group
: Open the 'Tools menu item from the main message menu : select the choice
"Apply Rules" : a second pop-up menu will expand : in this case we select
"News" from the secondary menu because we are applying this to a Usenet news
group. Clicking on "News" brings up the "Message Rules" tabbed dialog with
tab 2 selected that shows the rules you have in place for News groups. The
last Rule you created will have the highest number : select it and click the
"Apply now" button. This will open the "Apply News Rules Now" helper
dialogue.
12. Here's a poorly designed aspect of Outlook Express : if you have created
a rule that you want applied to specific newsgroups (or just one newsgroup,
as in this case), you'd think apply now would do just that. But you need to
select the 'target' to apply the rule to again in the "Apply News Rules Now"
dialogue : look down toward the bottom of the dialogue and see what the
default target group is : then click the Browse button to open another
dialog to let you select where you want the rule applied IF THE DEFAULT
TARGET IS NOT where you want it applied. Poor design !
13. Finally, gasp, you can now hit the "Apply Now" button in the "Apply News
Rules Now" helper dialogue to actually apply the rule : in our example here
any current message in alt.support.cancer with "Tobacco Companies" in the
subject line will have been removed.
Finally note that the example rule we developed would have removed the
original message which
was cross-posted, as well as all "leaked in" replies : perhaps the original
message, even though
cross-posted, contained something relevant to you ? You may wish to save
its contents before
applying the rule. Outlook Express does not support more sophisticated
rule-making where you could, for example, NOT delete the message if it came
from one specific person, but delete
it if it came from anyone else. Another example of what an out-dated
war-horse Outlook Express is : you cannot set up a rule that deletes
messages to cross-posted to more than a certain number of groups you
specify.
best, Uncle Sally
p.s. I have omitted from this e-mail in the interests of sanity and brevity
mention of the fact
that you can define a list of people and block or not block all messages
from people on that list.
(OT how to killfile a thread) How to block a thread that annoys you using Outlook Express on a News Group 
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