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Given that newsreader clients all generally perform the same task, its not uncommon that
most of their respective features are similar. Also considering that many Mac users eschew
reading documentation and prefer to jump right in with both feet, there are probably a few
features hidden in your particular news client that you might not know about. This column
will cover a one of those features: basic filtering techniques.
Most newsreader clients have the ability to filter messages based on a number of criteria.
A common use of filtering is to avoid having to plow though every message on a server.
There are two basic kinds of filtering, which I refer to as inclusive, and exclusive.
Exclusive filters exclude articles based on specified criteria, by either killing the
article (or marking it as read) before the message list is displayed. Two places I use
exclusive filters are a variation on the old twit filter and filtering out noise on groups
normally reserved for binaries.
For the twit filter, if a certain user frequently posts messages I’m not interested in, or
binary files that are damaged and not readable, I’ll create a filter to make those
messages disappear from the header list. For zapping noise, I have created a filter that
applies only to binary groups that marks as read any message less than 5K, which does a
pretty good job of eliminating the non-binary files in most groups.
MT-Newswatcher has a dedicated Filter menu, which contains the ability to create
user specified filters with many criteria as well as simple filters for killing a
particular author or subject, based on the current message. Thoth’s filters can be found
in the Filter Items item under the News menu. Both programs allow the user to create
filters that can be saved and re-used later, as well as on-the-fly filters to process sets
of headers already downloaded.
Filtering sets of headers already downloaded is what I call an inclusive filter, where it
is possible to type a few letters or words so that only articles that contain that text
(usually in the subject, although other fields can also be filtered). Both programs
feature the ability to further narrow the search by allowing the user to specify if the
bit of text to match headers against is case sensitive, or appears only at the beginning,
middle, or end of the search field. In MT-Newswatcher, the Show-if panel – which is the
place to create inclusive, on-the-fly filters - is displayed by selecting the Show Details
item from the Edit menu. In Thoth, it is in the View menu, and called Show Toolbar.
Filters can be simple, such as a straightforward “kill this subject," or complex, such as
highlight any messages addressed to me in the last three days. Thoth takes filtering one
step further by supporting regular expressions. (Regular expressions are a subject for
another day; it is a technique to create complex matching criteria.) Another feature of
filters is the ability to apply them only to subsets of groups, such as all groups in the
alt.* hierarchy or everything that begins alt.macintosh.*.
By applying filters to specific news groups or sets of groups, it is possible to quickly
find messages that interest you without having to crawl though everything posted since the
last time you looked.
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"Techniques for Filtering Messages"
