I hate web based newsgroups! It is one of those "better on the web" ideas that just defies common sense. My main grudge is not being able to use them off-line. I am a confirmed laptop user and as such often find myself with 20 minutes without and Internet connection, when I like to sort out my in-box and newsgroups. Lesser problems are that it isn't easy to see which threads you have read and which threads you haven't read yet, again, for a grazer like me, it is vital I can get up to date on a newsgroup and then visit it again a month later and ensure I have at least viewed all of the headers.
I use the excellent XanaNews - http://www.wilsonc.demon.co.uk/xananews.htm. It is great for filtering on words in headers (except when people write headers like "oh no another problem", instead of "Excel filtering problem - another problem" for instance). It is great at downloading lots of groups simultaneously over a fast link.
Don't get me wrong, a hybrid where you can engage in newsgroups using a news reader and search all newsgroups via a web interface is great, but Google already has that based covered.
The reason for the post is that IBExpert & FIBPlus have both moved over to web based news groups and as such I haven't looked at the posts on them for a while and probably won't now. Does this mean that I will no longer be using the product, well, no, but it means that I am less likely to give support or keep abreast of issues and ideas.
Maybe they are just telling this old fart something........