OT: expired newsgroup articles?

hi everyone. whenever i try to look at a message from more than two
months ago, i get an error message like this:


Error!

newsgroup server responded:*Bad article number*

*

Perhaps the article has expired

*

<fsfdgf$kma$1 (AT) forums (DOT) macromedia.com> (1403848)



i don't recall this always being the case. is this a problem with the
newsgroup, or my newsgroup reader (Thunderbird)?

courtney (n h c) wrote:

i don't recall this always being the case. is this a problem with the
newsgroup, or my newsgroup reader (Thunderbird)?

I get it too, but always have done. I use Google Groups if I want to
look at an old post.

Steve

see, i'm just not sure if it's been this way all along and i never
noticed, or if it just started recently. i just go to the forums on the
Adobe website to look at old stuff, but it's quite a pain in the ass!

do you also use Thunderbird? or does it happen in every newsgroup reader?

Dooza wrote:

courtney (n h c) wrote:
i don't recall this always being the case. is this a problem with the
newsgroup, or my newsgroup reader (Thunderbird)?

I get it too, but always have done. I use Google Groups if I want to
look at an old post.

Steve

I also use Tb and get the same thing. Though just as Steve said Google
Groups it's very handy to search info:

http://groups.google.com/group/macro...cs?hl=es&gvc=2

IMHO it's the best way to search in this forum.

courtney (n h c) wrote:

see, i'm just not sure if it's been this way all along and i never
noticed, or if it just started recently. i just go to the forums on the
Adobe website to look at old stuff, but it's quite a pain in the ass!

do you also use Thunderbird? or does it happen in every newsgroup reader?

Dooza wrote:
courtney (n h c) wrote:
i don't recall this always being the case. is this a problem with the
newsgroup, or my newsgroup reader (Thunderbird)?

I get it too, but always have done. I use Google Groups if I want to
look at an old post.

Steve

courtney (n h c) wrote:

see, i'm just not sure if it's been this way all along and i never
noticed, or if it just started recently. i just go to the forums on the
Adobe website to look at old stuff, but it's quite a pain in the ass!

do you also use Thunderbird? or does it happen in every newsgroup reader?

Yup, I am on Thunderbird too.

Steve

..oO(courtney (n h c))

hi everyone. whenever i try to look at a message from more than two
months ago, i get an error message like this:


Error!

newsgroup server responded:*Bad article number*

*

Perhaps the article has expired

That's the normal way. Newsservers hold postings only for some time, but
never forever. How long they will be kept depends on the the newsgroup,
the server and its storage capabilities. Typical ranges are from just a
couple of days for binary groups up to several weeks or even months for
text-based groups in the big international hierarchies.

As an example here's the group list of the server I use (except for
postings to this group):

http://individual.net/hierarchies.php

You can clearly see the different expire times - only the biggest
hierarchies are kept for up to 8 months.

For older postings you always have to use an archive like Google Groups
with their huge server farms. A single server would never be able to
permanently store the huge amount of traffic that goes through the
newsgroups every day.

But every good newsreader allows to archive the postings you want to
keep on your local machine.

Micha

i see! thanks for the info.

i guess it's not a big deal to go to Google or Adobe.com to search for
posts. i have to do that sometimes anyway because when i search in
Thunderbird, it only searches the subject (which i assume is because i
only download the message headers and not the entire message).

thanks again!

Michael Fesser wrote:

.oO(courtney (n h c))


hi everyone. whenever i try to look at a message from more than two
months ago, i get an error message like this:


Error!

newsgroup server responded:*Bad article number*

*

Perhaps the article has expired


That's the normal way. Newsservers hold postings only for some time, but
never forever. How long they will be kept depends on the the newsgroup,
the server and its storage capabilities. Typical ranges are from just a
couple of days for binary groups up to several weeks or even months for
text-based groups in the big international hierarchies.

As an example here's the group list of the server I use (except for
postings to this group):

http://individual.net/hierarchies.php

You can clearly see the different expire times - only the biggest
hierarchies are kept for up to 8 months.

For older postings you always have to use an archive like Google Groups
with their huge server farms. A single server would never be able to
permanently store the huge amount of traffic that goes through the
newsgroups every day.

But every good newsreader allows to archive the postings you want to
keep on your local machine.

Micha