Strange behavior when reading newsgroup postings

[David Rocah]

I just noticed some strange behavior in Entourage 2004 when reading
newsgroup postings. I have the posts sorted by Conversation. The
conversations themselves seem to be sorted by the date of the most recent
post within the conversation, and each conversation starts out sorted in
reverse chronological order, with the oldest at the top (which I think is
probably as it should be). But as I'm scrolling through the posts from top
to bottom, on what appears to me to be a random basis, when a given post
changes its status from unread to read, it will change its position in the
list, according to no principle that I can discern. When I then move to the
next post, it will be a post that had been further up in the list that I
already read. Is this normal (I assume not)? If not, any clue as to the
cause, or what I can do to stop it? If there's no fix, what do all you
Entourage MVP's out there use as your newsreader?

Thanks,

David

 

[Michel Bintener]

I can't really help you with your current setup, as I don't have the time to
experiment right now; but yes, I use Entourage 2004 as my newsreader, and I
use a custom arrangement to create a threaded view of a discussion. Go to
View>Arrange by>Edit Custom Arrangements, and create a custom arrangement
that meets your expectations. Mine looks as follows:

Group items by: Subject
Sort groups by: Sent, Newest on top
Sort items within groups by: Sent, Newest on top
Default display for groups: Expanded

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I have found this arrangement to be
quite effective.

I just noticed some strange behavior in Entourage 2004 when reading
newsgroup postings. I have the posts sorted by Conversation. The
conversations themselves seem to be sorted by the date of the most recent
post within the conversation, and each conversation starts out sorted in
reverse chronological order, with the oldest at the top (which I think is
probably as it should be). But as I'm scrolling through the posts from top
to bottom, on what appears to me to be a random basis, when a given post
changes its status from unread to read, it will change its position in the
list, according to no principle that I can discern. When I then move to the
next post, it will be a post that had been further up in the list that I
already read. Is this normal (I assume not)? If not, any clue as to the
cause, or what I can do to stop it? If there's no fix, what do all you
Entourage MVP's out there use as your newsreader?

Thanks,

David

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[Bill Weylock]

I have my list set to Group by Subject, sort Groups (subjects) by Newest
first, sort items in groups (posts) by Oldest first.

What you¹re describing just happens. You¹re not crazy. For some reason, it
resorts as you click on a message that is out of place. What I think you
will find is that the message that disappears is now where it should have
been in the first place. Often, I¹ve noticed, it is the first post in a
thread (Group), but not always.

It¹s a bug, but you can live with it better than you think.


Best,


- Bill

I just noticed some strange behavior in Entourage 2004 when reading
newsgroup postings. I have the posts sorted by Conversation. The
conversations themselves seem to be sorted by the date of the most recent
post within the conversation, and each conversation starts out sorted in
reverse chronological order, with the oldest at the top (which I think is
probably as it should be). But as I'm scrolling through the posts from top
to bottom, on what appears to me to be a random basis, when a given post
changes its status from unread to read, it will change its position in the
list, according to no principle that I can discern. When I then move to the
next post, it will be a post that had been further up in the list that I
already read. Is this normal (I assume not)? If not, any clue as to the
cause, or what I can do to stop it? If there's no fix, what do all you
Entourage MVP's out there use as your newsreader?

Thanks,

David

Tiger 10.4.7
Office 2004
Windows XP Pro SP2
Office 2003
G5 1.8Ghz (single)
ThinkPad T40
Treo 650
(sigh)

 

[David Rocah]

That's a feature I didn't know about, thanks very much. Your reply brings
up a new question. What's the difference between grouping by subject and
grouping by conversation? Put another way, why does Entourage have a
conversation column, when it appears to be identical to the subject column
(at least in a quick scan of the messages from this newsgroup)?

David

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

Yes this happens, and it happens when the subject is longer than 76
characters and the order is set to grouping by subject (or conversation).

What happens is that when a mail with a wrapped subject line appears, only
the first line of the wrapped subject header is considered in the sorting of
groups. When you select the item, Entourage 'reads' the headers and realizes
that the subject is longer than it first thought, and re-groups the message
according to the now longer subject header.

It is annoying.

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

For regular mail & news, no difference at all. This is a feature that is
used in Exchange.

 

[David Rocah]

Thanks for the explanation. I'm now noticing another strange behavior. I
have set up Entourage to group and sort as described by Michel Bintener in
the earlier post. Now the unread message count in the folder list on the
left side doesn't match what I see in message list. For example, at the
moment the folder list shows 1 unread message (thus the name of the
newsgroup is in bold), but in the message list, there are no unread
messages. Any ideas why this would be happening?

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

The unread message count on some news servers is a little unreliable, and
the public MS News server is one of these!

This is inherent in the way NNTP works, and there's not much that anyone can
do about it. Usually, a 'Refresh Message List' command (Cmd-L) will fix
things. Mostly we learn to ignore the unread message count for news servers.

 

[David Rocah]

I love learning about these little quirks, and find it so helpful to know
that there's nothing wrong with my system. Thanks so much.