🚀 go-pugleaf

In <ii.789355533@shell1.best.com>,
Nancy McGough  <ii@best.com> wrote:
>
>...[NN setup and newgroups script deleted]
>
>Do any other newsreaders allow you to silently add all new newsgroups
>to your .newsrc with subscription?  What strategies do other people
>use for dealing with new newsgroups?

I avoid dealing with them except every 2-4 weeks by running trn with:

    -q   bypasses the automatic check for new newsgroups when starting trn

and I keep a "tidy" .newsrc, with a minimum number of unsubscribed groups,
and another .non.newsrc file with all of unsubscribed groups in it.   

To check for new groups, I run a script that appends the unsub'd groups
to the .newsrc, and invokes 'rn' to query me if I want to subscribe.  I
answer 'add all new groups' and quit the newsreader, and split the
.newsrc file up into sub'd and unsub'd with an editor, and do any
re-ordering or selection of new groups that seems appropriate.

Trn has some newer and niftier group adding and subscription options,
see the man page for details - I'm just still using my old kludge :-)

BTW, to have the human reader queried "do you want to add a new group?"
by the newsreader upon each invocation was probably a good idea back
when new groups appeared only rarely (1 or 2 a month) but in the face of
the number of groups currently available and the rate at which new ones
appear, I believe that newsreaders should NOT default to asking:
    "subscribe to vvv.xxx.yyy.zzz.whatever ?"
    "subscribe to vvv.xxx.yyy.zzz.whomever ?"
    "subscribe to vvv.xxx.yyy.zzz.whichever ?"
upon every invocation, most especially if there is no .newsrc file (or
equivalent).  (How many times have you seen newbies complain: "I tried
to read news, and it kept asking me "want to subscribe?" - for *hours*!")

A side effect of this default is that when new groups are created, the
first people to notice them are newer readers of news, who haven't
figured out how to shut off the Q&A session.