Get Into That Bitbucket!!!!

Into every newsgroup reader's life, an annoying fellow poster or thread must fall. Instead of starting flame wars, most people consider it reasonable to simply place said poster or thread into the killfile [aka "bitbucket", "bozo bin", etc.], an operation that tends to be referred to as "plonking". Incidentally, many readers [such as Agent, my personal favorite :-)] have a "watch" function [might have a different name], which is basically the opposite of a kill filter. The watch filter makes sure to highlight specified posters or threads to call your attention to them.

Here's how to do it in various news readers [instructions are for Windows readers unless specified as for a different platform, and the only set I've personally tested is the set for Agent. All others are from newsgroup posts or e-mail from users of that software]:

Outlook Express

To killfile:

go to Tools…Message Rules…News.
Click the “New” button.
In the first box choose the condition you wish [e.g. a particular subject line or poster]
In the second box choose the action you wish [e.g. Delete]
In the third box click on the blue link and fill in the desired filter [the specific name or thread title]
Click OK twice.
Click the Apply Now and resume reading.

Netscape

Go to Edit / Message Filters / New.
A dialog box will pop up which lets you choose words or names to filter
This box also lets you choose whether to delete the messages, ignore the thread they're in, mark the messages read, or watch the thread. [Note: I've seen a report that the Unix version of Netscape 4.77 will only filter mail, not newsgroups. I don't use Unix, so can't test this for myself.]

Agent

Go to Message/Filters/Set Kill Filter, then make appropriate selections in the dialog box. Please note that an entry can be set to expire in a given number of days [optionally, a given number of days of inactivity].
Alternately, hold down Ctrl, press K, then talk to the dialog box as above.
The Free version does NOT have filtering [one reason I personally bought the full version].
Incidentally, Agent *does* have a watch filter as well, which puts a higher than normal attention level on the selected person or thread [it's kind of the opposite of a kill filter].

AOL

From the Read My Newsgroups window, highlight the newsgroup for which you want to set a killfile. Click on Preferences. Select the type of filter (Author Is, Subject Matches, Subject Contains, Domain Is) and fill in the filter information. *Important* Be sure to click Add filter *before* clicking Save, or the new filter will not be added. Killfiles may also be set globally from the Newsgroups window. Choose the Filtering tab, then set the filter as above.
Unfortunately, killfiles are *not* available in AOL versions earlier than 5.0. [I've seen a statement that someone managed to successfully set up filtering in AOL 4.0, I need to check on that.]

SLRN [Unix]
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While at the message you wish to killfile:
Press "k". Follow the prompts.
Pick Score type: Subject, From, References, Edit, Cancel
These should be fairly self-explanatory. Subject will kill any post with
that subject line, while Reference will kill any post with that Reference
line (use this to kill a thread even if people change the Subject
heading). From will killfile posts from a given individual. Edit allows
you to manually edit the score file.
Score: (default: -9999)
The default, -9999, is the lowest "score" possible. Anything with this
score will not be downloaded from the server; to killfile just hit enter
and accept the default. You can also give posts a positive score to mark
threads or individuals that you WANT to read; for instance, give a post a
score of 50, and the next time you read the newsgroup SLRN will put that
thread at the top, with an exclamation point by it to let you know you
wanted to keep tabs on it.
Which newsgroups: This group, All groups
Another one that's fairly self-explanatory.
Expires (MM/DD/YYYY or DD-MM-YYYY or leave blank):
This sets the expiration date of the score. You can set a date if you
want to lift the killfile after a certain period of time (perhaps someone
is normally a person you like to hear from, but this week they're really
getting on your nerves). Or you can leave it blank to make the score
permanent.
Apply scorefile now? [Y]es, No, Cancel
Default is Yes, which applies the scorefile for this session of SLRN. If
you choose No, it will be applied the next time you run SLRN. Choose
Cancel if you changed your mind or fudged something in the other menus.

Pine [*nix]
---------------
From the main menu (Pine), go to setup, rules, filter, then type in
whatever the filter info is. There's no killfile, as such, in pine.

Tin [Unix]
--------------
You can filter/kill by subject or author, for only one newsgroup or for all
of them, and the filter can be temporary or permanent.
To filter posts:
~ Open a message from the thread or author you want to filter.
~ Press ctrl-k (press the "control" key and while still holding it down
press the "k" key). This brings up a screen of settings.
~ Use the "return" key to move from line to line.
~ Use the space bar on each line to cycle through the possible settings.

MT-NewsWatcher [Mac]
----------------------------------
There are many ways to create filters with this program. One way is:
~ Open a message from the thread or author you want to filter.
~ In the "Filter" menu, select "Kill this Author..." or "Kill this
    Subject..."
~ A dialog box opens up. Select the "Matching & Action" tab, if it isn't
    already on top.
~ There are three pop-up menus that let you define what the filter should
    do. They probably are set to "Kill" if "Subject" "contains". The third
    one, "contains," can be set to other values such as "starts with" and "ends
    with."
~ Select the "Advanced Options" tab. There you will find settings that let
    you make the filter be temporary or permanent.

If you use a reader not yet listed and know how to use the killfile, please send me instructions so I can post them? :-)