Why is the newsgroup empty?
To put it bluntly, alt.binaries.pictures.joanne-guest
isn't empty. As of February 2005, on-topic messages are averaging
100 per day, but there can be as few as 2 messages on a quiet day.
If you've seen no traffic (or maybe only a handful of messages) for
several days in a row, there may be something wrong. For example:
- Your ISP (or its upstream feed) may have stopped carrying the
newsgroup. If all you ever see is spam, the chances are it's the
upstream feed that has stopped, not your ISP (this is because most
spam gets crossposted to multiple newsgroups and the upstream
feed will accept the message so long as any of the
newsgroups mentioned are still being carried).
Your first step would be to ask your ISP. If your ISP has
stopped taking the newsgroup, you may have to look elsewhere for a newsfeed.
- Some ISPs only retain postings in the "binaries" newsgroups
for a very short time: this can be as low as 8 hours (compared to the
7-14 days that are the norm for other newsgroups). This is more likely
to be the case if you're seeing a trickle of messages rather than no
messages at all. As with the previous case, the first thing to do is ask
your ISP about the situation. If you can't collect news more often, you
may have to look elsewhere for a newsfeed.
Alternative newsfeeds
If your ISP doesn't carry alt.binaries.pictures.joanne-guest,
or if you are having trouble seeing the postings in the group, you may
want to look elsewhere for a newsfeed.
- You could
pay for a newsfeed. Traffic in a.b.p.j-g is low compared
to other binary groups, so a 1GB or 2GB download limit should suffice.
- UK dialup users could try signing up with one of
the pay-as-you-go (a.k.a. "free") ISPs. At least two of them
(PlusNet
and FreeUK) carry
the Jo group.
I no longer know of any free news-servers that carry binary groups, so
it's going to cost you money one way or another. Sorry.