DejaNews Question

[Dana Pearson]

Some months back DejaNews began a new service, newsgroup browsing.  Since our college does not provide news service, I thought this new service would be a valuable resource in addition to the search service.  However, I have encountered puzzling results as I browse and search (I'm producing an orientation video for our students).

First of all, there seems to be far fewer newsgroups available for browsing than the news service offered by my local ISP.  Web4Lib is not included.

I am also puzzled by the results of a phrase search of my name (my name in parentheses) which I expected to return each message I had posted to newsgroups such as PACS-L and one or two others.  The result of searching the old database yielded no original messages but one in which someone quoted a portion of my message and name.  It could be that the archive began after my message were posted, but before the response to one of my messages.

I use the search engine practically every week; it's very useful to the cultivation of a faux guruship, but I don't understand the above.   Have I missed a disclaimer somewhere?

Dana Pearson
Cisco Junior College
dpearson at eastland.net