[Pan-users] Re: Clearing Filtered Posts

[Duncan]

Aporitic Response posted <address@hidden>,
excerpted below,  on Fri, 12 Aug 2005 14:22:46 +0300:

> I'm trying to get situated with this newsreader, but it's both complex and 
> undocumented, so I have my work cut out.

Unfortunate, the lack of documentation, definitely.  Fortunately, in many
cases, operation is mostly intuitive, and where it isn't, there's this
list/group. =8^)

> One problem I have is that filtered (plonked) posts keep showing up in the 
> "Unread Messages" count.
> 
> Is there a way I can purge those, aside from deleting all messages in the 
> newsgroup?

Yes.  Actually, there's two ways, a manual method, and an automatic one.

The manual method

The manual method is almost intuitive enough you'll wonder how you missed
it, but does require several steps so would be a hassle to do routinely.

First, under the filter menu, select "Match scores of -9999 (Ignored)". If
you normally don't display low scores either, and have scoring set up such
that it creates them, you can turn that on too. If necessary, also turn on
view read posts.

That will make the filtered post visible. If desired, you can toggle the
other score-match filters off as well, so /only/ the filtered ones show
up. Then you can simply mark them read and/or delete them as you'd
normally do.

Don't forget to reset the view filters, or you'll be wondering why you
aren't seeing your normal posts the next time you enter the group!  (I had
this problem once when I set view my own posts (only), forgot to reset it,
and wondered later why PAN showed all these unread messages in the count,
but wouldn't actually show me any overviews!  It took me a bit to figure
things out, but when I did, I was like... DUH!!! =8^)

Automated

There are two steps to automating the process.  First, you create your own
filter that specifies ignored (and low, if desired) posts, then you create
a rule that acts on the filter you just created.

To create the filter, go to Tools, Custom Filters.  Hit Add.  You now get
the custom filter creation/modification dialog.

Here's the tricky part.  Due to the way the dialog is set up, you have to
think what will NOT match. Therefore, select "Article score is at
least"..., and then select low, the lowest level you do NOT want to match
(or if you want it to match low as well, select zero). Now hit the "Add
New Line to the Filter" button. Once it's listed in the conditions box,
select the new condition, and hit the Invert button. *NOW* you get what
you wanted!

Complete the new custom filter by changing the name to something that
makes sense, I just call mine "Ignored", and hitting the OK button.  The
new filter should now be listed in the Filters dialog, which you can now
close as well.

Now, you have to create a rule to do something with the filter you just
created.  Go to Tools, Rules, and again hit Add.  That results in the Edit
Rule dialog.

On the Newsgroups tab, ensure that it's set to apply to all groups. 
Switch to the Filters tab, and select the "Ignored" filter you just
created, above.  Switch to the Actions tab, and set it to either Delete
article, or Mark as... Read, whichever you prefer.

Complete the rule by choosing a name.  Again, I simply use "Ignored". 
Also ensure that the Apply to incoming checkbox is checked, or the rule
will only work if you trigger it manually.  Again, hit the OK button, and
the new rule should now be listed in the Rules dialog, which again, you
can now close.

Details, details

Note that the rule you just set up will automatically apply to incoming
messages, but won't automatically delete messages you've already
downloaded.  Thus, you'll want to apply the rule manually, the first time.
Open the rules dialog back up, select the rule, and hit apply to
subscribed groups.

Likewise, every time you add a new killfile entry, you'll probably want to
open the rules dialog and apply the rule manually, so it kills any
already downloaded messages now matching the new killfile entry.  The "add
and rescore" button in the scoring dialog will hide them from view, but
won't apply your delete or mark as read rule for you.

Finally, perhaps the way I deal with low scores as opposed to ignored,
will also be useful for you.  I have a separate filter/rule combo for
each, ignored and neg-score.  

The ignored rule is set to delete.  Anyone I mark ignore, I don't want to
see their posts, ever, even to refer back to them from a reply that I DO
see, so delete is what I want to do with those.

I don't have many negative-scoring rules, other than set to ignore, but
they do come in handy occasionally.  Consequently, there aren't many posts
that get a below-zero score that isn't ignored, but there are a few.  The
idea here is that I normally don't want to see the posts, but I don't feel
so strongly about it that I don't EVER want to see them.  It's possible
that if I read an interesting reply, I'll want to refer to the post to
which it's replying, even if I didn't see it before and wouldn't normally
want to see it, because it's negative scored.  Thus, the rule for
neg-score simply automatically marks the posts as read, so I don't
normally see them, but can toggle the view-marked-as-read filter and view
them if I want to.  Because I have the rule set to mark-read on incoming,
and I don't normally view read posts, I won't normally see the posts, even
with the view low-scored posts view-filter turned on, so I leave it on. 
That way, as stated, I can simply toggle the view read filter, to view the
upline, as I normally would if the message weren't scored.

Anyway, that should do what you want.  Again the reminder, any time you
toggle filters on the filter menu, don't forget to toggle them back
(unless of course you want PAN to /always/ work that way), or you'll be
wondering why PAN isn't working as you expect, the next time you start it!

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html