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From: Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid>
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
Subject: Re: [Tin] Newer versions falsely show empty groups
Date: 1 Jul 2025 12:38:20 GMT
Organization: NOYB
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Message-ID: <1040rhc.3dc.1@ID-201911.user.individual.net>
References: <68627d02@news.ausics.net> <103u6k9$lv$1@nntp.de> <68632a2a@news.ausics.net>
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User-Agent: tin/1.6.2-20030910 ("Pabbay") (UNIX) (CYGWIN_NT-10.0-WOW/2.8.0(0.309/5/3) (i686)) Hamster/2.0.2.2

Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
> Urs Janssen <urs@buil.tin.org> wrote:
> > In Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
> >> Curiously it sometimes depends on the getart_limit setting. With
> >> "getart_limit=500" I can see articles in alt.bitcoins, but with
> >> "getart_limit=1000" it opens empty, with "*** No articles ***" at
> >> the bottom (normally the view stays on the group list while that
> >> message displays for genuinely-empty groups). Same with
> >> comp.infosystems.gemini, comp.os.misc, and various other
> >> low-traffic groups.
> > 
> > a positive getart_limit fetches the last "limit" articles (so you may
> > miss some unread articles if the limit is too small), a negative number
> > will fetch all unread arts plus the last "limit" read articles (for propper
> > threading). I would avoid positives numbers (as (auto)catchup may mark
> > unseen articles as read).
> 
> I gave this a try and those falsely-empty groups do show articles
> in 2.6.4 with "getart_limit=-500". But it's not going to work for
> me. I'm used to subscribing to busy groups with lots of idiots
> arguing and only check them when I'm bored enough. If I check
> aus.cars now with "getart_limit=-500" I download 3.9M, which is
> worse than Tin 2.0.1 with "getart_limit=500" which downloads 2.3MB.
> With "getart_limit=500" Tin 2.6.4 downloads 461KB - that's the
> significant improvement that prompted me to upgrade in the first
> place.
> 
> If I miss some posts because there are over 500 unread, I don't
> care. It's just a pool of BS for me to tap into when there's
> bugger all real discussion elsewhere on Usenet. But I need to
> reduce how much internet data I use since it's become more
> expensive for me.

   Urs will correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK, you can set per group/
hierarchy/combination_of_groups ('scope') tinrc variables in
..tin/attributes. The variables set in .tin/attributes will override
those set in .tin/tinrc. See tin(5) for details.

  So you can set a negative getart_limit for sane groups and a postive
one for "busy groups with lots of idiots".

  For example I set different undeclared_charset, organization,
news_quote_format, from and sigfile variables for different 'scope's.

  Hope this helps.

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