Thunderbird

[Drew]

first off I accidentally broke the golden rule about cross posting but
this question is what I posted in another group.

I got tired of WLM and decided to go with Thunderbird.. The question I
have is how does one get rid of old posts? I just get a message stating
that it will not delete it if it is not from me?

 

[Jolly polly]

first off I accidentally broke the golden rule about cross posting but
this question is what I posted in another group.

I got tired of WLM and decided to go with Thunderbird.. The question I
have is how does one get rid of old posts? I just get a message stating
that it will not delete it if it is not from me?

Are you talking about posts in a newsgroup, such as this
or
are you talking about old emails?

 

[Drew]

Are you talking about posts in a newsgroup, such as this
or
are you talking about old emails?

Sorry for being unclear of what I meant. I was talking about old posts
in a newsgroup.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Sorry for being unclear of what I meant. I was talking about old posts
in a newsgroup.

If you posted the old messages from WLM, and you're trying to get rid of
them from Thunderbird, then it's most likely not going to work, as there
is an unique identifier that lets the news server know that the original
poster is the one attempting to delete it. That identifier probably
changes between news clients. If it's an old post that you're trying to
delete in Thunderbird which was also posted in Thunderbird, then you
simply highlight the post and hit the "Del" key, or click on the Edit
menu and click Cancel Message.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Drew]

If you posted the old messages from WLM, and you're trying to get rid of
them from Thunderbird, then it's most likely not going to work, as there
is an unique identifier that lets the news server know that the original
poster is the one attempting to delete it. That identifier probably
changes between news clients. If it's an old post that you're trying to
delete in Thunderbird which was also posted in Thunderbird, then you
simply highlight the post and hit the "Del" key, or click on the Edit
menu and click Cancel Message.

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf I am talking about all old posts not just mine. I am one for
keeping the inbox and newsgroups clean when people stop posting to same.

 

[Justine Time]

Yousuf I am talking about all old posts not just mine. I am one for
keeping the inbox and newsgroups clean when people stop posting to same.

Thunderbird 3

What I do to keep things "clean" but it may not be what you are after.
I mark newsgroup as read then click on Filters bar.... "show only unread
messages" then click the "keep filters applied when switching folders"

 

[Sunny Bard]

decided to go with Thunderbird.. The question I
have is how does one get rid of old posts? I just get a message stating
that it will not delete it if it is not from me?

Once you send a message, it's "out there" on all the usenet servers on
the planet, you can cancel one of your own messages (though not many
servers honour cancels nowadays). If it's not your message, thunderbird
won't even let you attempt to cancel it, which is what you're seeing.

However you probably don't want to cancel other people's messages, you
want to hide the messages from your local client, try using the "K" or
"k" keys to kill an entire thread or subthread ...

 

[Char Jackson]

If you posted the old messages from WLM, and you're trying to get rid of
them from Thunderbird, then it's most likely not going to work, as there
is an unique identifier that lets the news server know that the original
poster is the one attempting to delete it. That identifier probably
changes between news clients. If it's an old post that you're trying to
delete in Thunderbird which was also posted in Thunderbird, then you
simply highlight the post and hit the "Del" key, or click on the Edit
menu and click Cancel Message.

I believe he's trying to delete local copies of newsgroup posts in an
effort to 'clean up', in which case the server won't be involved or
aware.

I don't use TB so I don't know the exact steps, but this is something
that's handled entirely within the local client.

 

[Drew]

On Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:59:39 -0400, Yousuf Khan

I believe he's trying to delete local copies of newsgroup posts in an
effort to 'clean up', in which case the server won't be involved or
aware.

I don't use TB so I don't know the exact steps, but this is something
that's handled entirely within the local client.

I had no problem deleting in WLM 2009 so I thought maybe I could do it
with Thunderbird as well.

 

[Char Jackson]

I had no problem deleting in WLM 2009 so I thought maybe I could do it
with Thunderbird as well.

Of course you can, but the steps will be different because TB is not
WLM. So here's what Google has to say (taken from the first hit when I
searched, so YMMV):

<BEGIN>
Right-click on the newsgroup name in the Folder Pane, select
"Properties...", select the "Retention Policy" tab.

On that tab, look for options such as "Always delete read messages" or
"Delete messages more than X days old", etc. Select the option that
you like best.

If those options are greyed out, uncheck "Use server defaults" and see
if they become available. Also, you may have to uncheck "Use my
account settings" in order to get more control.

In any case, close the dialog by clicking on "OK".

Exit and then re-enter the newsgroup for the changes to take effect.
<END>

An easier way might be to simply mark items as "Read" and then use a
view such as "Show only unread". That way, the old stuff is still
available in case you need to reference something, but it won't
clutter up your interface all the time.

 

[Drew]

Thanks Char.. simple enough sounding. A good old fashioned brain fart is
probably why I did not google for the answer.

 

[Big Steel]

I had no problem deleting in WLM 2009 so I thought maybe I could do it
with Thunderbird as well.

Nope! I use TB and you can't delete the posts. Even on my Droid, I can
delete old posts, like I could do with Windows Mail or even OE when I
using it. I know with my Droid using Goundhog (ng reader) it was pulling
the posts down to the smartdrive disc so they could be deleted and not
seen again. I think the Windows products do the same thing, and the
maybe the reason why you can delete the posts and not see them again.

 

[Alex Clayton]

Of course you can, but the steps will be different because TB is not
WLM. So here's what Google has to say (taken from the first hit when I
searched, so YMMV):

<BEGIN>
Right-click on the newsgroup name in the Folder Pane, select
"Properties...", select the "Retention Policy" tab.

On that tab, look for options such as "Always delete read messages" or
"Delete messages more than X days old", etc. Select the option that
you like best.

If those options are greyed out, uncheck "Use server defaults" and see
if they become available. Also, you may have to uncheck "Use my
account settings" in order to get more control.

In any case, close the dialog by clicking on "OK".

Exit and then re-enter the newsgroup for the changes to take effect.
<END>

An easier way might be to simply mark items as "Read" and then use a
view such as "Show only unread". That way, the old stuff is still
available in case you need to reference something, but it won't
clutter up your interface all the time.

Thanks what you put here worked for me. This has been one of the things
I was having a hard time with too. I was used to the way the Windows
readers all worked, where you just deleted all the posts you did not
want to see any more. With Tbird I never could. I had looked on line for
it and seemed to get nowhere. I was using filtering but it was a PITA.
Just followed the steps and put a date to delete the stuff by how old it
was and it worked fine.