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Forte Agent reaches 6.0, now with "hide quoted text"

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superboyac:
Not to derail the "Let's Bash The Bat!" train, but I'm curious as to if anyone is still using Agent? More specifically, anyone here on DC use it? Or ever use it?

There was a time when Agent dominated the Usenet landscape, but these days it's regarded more as a fringe player.
-Innuendo (November 24, 2009, 09:04 AM)
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I use Agent.  Actually, i should say I used to use Agent.  I don't deal with usenet much anymore.  Web forums have taken over so much the last few years, it makes the usenet groups almost useless to me.  But I used to use Agent all the time.  I still keep up with the development somewhat because I just like software.

One interesting thing I've noticed:  even though other software for newsgroups have become more popular (it seems like, I'm not sure), it's usually because of their binary downloading features, NOT the discussion/thread/reading features.  So for actually reading the discussions taking place over usenet, I still think Agent is king.  For downloading, not so much.  Other programs seem to be geared towards making an interface that will feel like a p2p file-sharing network.  These are probably better for downloading files or even searching for files.  Most (newsleecher, newsbin pro) even offer services that index the binary groups so you can search and download the files like Napster used to.

But, again, for reading discussions Agent still seems to be the program to use.  I actually preferred it to downloading binaries also.  There was an subtle simplicity or elegance to it.  But I never really tried the search and find programs.

Another thing about Agent, they sure seem to spend a lot of their efforts on their email component.  I always wondered how many people actually use Agent for their email client.  And why?  There are much better email clients out there.  I never got that.

superboyac:
Whenever TheBat! comes up, on whatever forum, this issue is raised and most people hate it. I've only ever seen it defended by a few hardliners on TheBat mailing list. this "feature" is awfully annoying, and the developers' attitude adds insult to injury. I'd have given up on TB long ago, if it weren't so convenient (and, for me, reliable) in all other aspects.

The developers' sole rationale for how the plaintext editor behaves is that in the editor, you see exactly what will be sent. If a line is not wrapped, it will be sent unwrapped, etc. Well, it's true as far as it goes, but *so what*?

They may have had a point once, a long time ago, when word wrapping was still something of a luxury on certain platforms (and there were MTAs on Unix and VMS VAX systems that would unceremoniously truncate lines longer than a certain constant value), but that was in mid-nineties. The rationale makes no sense - it's like printing a newspaper that you cannot fold, to ensure what you see is exactly what came out of the printing press. Argh. You are certainly not alone in your frustration.
-tranglos (November 24, 2009, 07:59 AM)
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I'm glad I'm not alone.  So what, indeed.  I wish they would get out of their little mailing-list world and open up to hearing the comments of their other users.

tranglos:
Not to derail the "Let's Bash The Bat!" train, but I'm curious as to if anyone is still using Agent? More specifically, anyone here on DC use it? Or ever use it?

There was a time when Agent dominated the Usenet landscape, but these days it's regarded more as a fringe player.
-Innuendo (November 24, 2009, 09:04 AM)
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I guess that's because Usenet has become fringe, unfortunately. I used to use Agent for email, until I switched to TheBat a few years ago, but Agent is still my favorite reader for newsgroups. The general public newsgroups are mostly spam and testosterone now, but there are still plenty of support groups for various products, like Delphi components. Borland (not Embarcadero) newsgroups remain the best source for Delphi help, etc. Some of these groups are closed-membership and if so, they do not get indexed by Google. So while I don't use Agent that much anymore, I have about 12 Usenet servers defined that I regularly download new posts from, *and* have kept a huge amount of knowledge in the archives.

Innuendo:
Web forums have taken over so much the last few years, it makes the usenet groups almost useless to me.-superboyac (November 24, 2009, 10:44 AM)
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I always preferred usenet over web forums as web sites tend to disappear and there goes your knowledgebase. With Agent & usenet, the messages are on your HD forever.

So for actually reading the discussions taking place over usenet, I still think Agent is king.  For downloading, not so much.
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For discussions, yes. Nothing can top Agent. It's unmatched. As for downloading, this v6.0 seems to have closed the gap between it and other binary downloaders. I'm rather impressed.

Another thing about Agent, they sure seem to spend a lot of their efforts on their email component.  I always wondered how many people actually use Agent for their email client.  And why?  There are much better email clients out there.  I never got that.
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There's a certain demographic out there that wants all of their correspondence in one place. I can respect that, but that's not how I work.

Innuendo:
I guess that's because Usenet has become fringe, unfortunately.-tranglos (November 24, 2009, 05:43 PM)
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Usenet has never been popular, but I wouldn't call that unfortunate at all. Keeps the riff-raff out.  ;D

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