Eric Snyder ) writes:
Hello Everyone!
I sure hope I am posting in the appropriate group. Over the last few
days, Google is no longer archiving several Rec.Radio newsgroups. For
example, Google is no longer allowing me to see current posts in the
following Radio newsgroups;

rec.radio.
rec.radio.amateur
rec.radio.amateur.digital
rec.radio.amatuer.packet
rec.radio.amateur.swap

Anyone else having the same problem with the newsgroups via Google?
If you are not using Google and can still see current dated messages
in the above groups, please let me know how you are doing it.

Eric N7DLV

There's no good reason for most of those to be archived. They aren't
legit newsgroups.


rec.radio.
This is to mark a sub-hierarchy. There shouldn't be anything at
that level. On the other hand, anything below it could not exist
unless "radio" was there.
rec.radio.amateur
Likewise, this doesn't exist. What you'd be looking for, you've
already found, rec.radio.amateur.misc
rec.radio.amateur.digital
Again, a placemarker. When it was created, they wanted room in
case there were other digital modes that deserved a separate newsgroup.
That has yet to happen, so it's all lumped into
rec.radio.amateur.digital.misc
rec.radio.amatuer.packet
I don't know how this one existe, likely a rogue newsgroup creation
message.
rec.radio.amateur.swap
This has never been a legit newsgroup. The proper one has always
been rec.radio.swap because people often swap or sell things that
aren't restricted to one of the radio hobbies. Thus it's part of
the sub-hierarchy that includes rec.radio.shortwave and rec.radio.cb
and the whole rec.radio.amateur.* subhierarchie.

There is a formal process to creating newsgroups, and proper naming
is an important part of that. But sometimes individuals do send out
creation messages, and some newsservers do accept them. So you can
get odd newsgroups created at some sites, but they never account for
much since few sites carry them, and they can't propogate properly.

In other cases, people don't understand the naming process, and guess
at newsgroups, which sometimes does seem to cause them to be created
at some sites. But take note that this pretty much happens only because
someone is cross-posting, and they throw in the kitchen sink, including
newsgroups that shouldn't exist. On some sites, they may be treated
as separate newsgroups. And of course, when that sort of cross-posting
happens, it fools people into thinking they are legit newsgroups, and
those people may themselves start adding them in.

If you check the deja/google archive, pretty much all of the messages
in those newsgroups will have been cross-posted. Any that are actually
just posted to one of those newsgroups likely originates from google;
in effect they keep the illegitimate newsgroup alive by archiving it.
They will also show little traffic, which is probably the reason google
stops archiving. A quick glance shows lots of junk in them, proving that
they aren't being used, even if they were legit enough to be used.

There is no loss from them not being archived, since few would be able
to post to them separately, and they were not legit newsgroups to begin
with.

Michael VE2BVW