13 Dec
2005
13 Dec
'05
11:07 p.m.
Jim Leonard wrote:
Jules Richardson wrote:
Even if they've used a munged email address, as most people posting to Usenet
do these days? I can't imagine teams of Google staff reading every single
message posted daily to Usenet and sanitising spam-trapped email addresses for
the purpose of their archives.
And what if you locate someone in a post from ten years back who's no longer
on that address? In the past, if the company was obvious in the email address,
I'd look up the company name and politely contact them to see if the person I
wanted to reach was still there but just on a different address. That's no
longer possible now either...
What bugs me is that Google have taken a useful archive and taken
functionality away from the user. It's either Google Groups and not linked to
Usenet, or it's a Usenet interface and should have the same functionality.
What *really* bugs me is that Google may well have the only copy of such a
historical archive of data, so it's not like you can even take your business
elsewhere to someone who understands the historical importance of such an
archive. If there was a choice, I'd send a polite email to Google saying why I
thought they were muppets, and just go and use someone who gave you actual
access to a Usenet archive rather than an abbreviated version of one.
*sigh*
J.
Google's usenet archive isn't what it
once was though, now that they
obscure email addresses and only let you contact authors through their
site; if the author's using a spam-trapped address or has changed
address format (but is still at the same location) then it's next to
useless.
You can't view them directly, but if you click on Reply To Author it
does get the email to them.