Actually, I just found out that this was not server trouble nor ISP fault at
all, but a client side problem caused by Outlook Express (I will need to get
a better news reader soon). My ISP (Verizon) was very helpful in
establishing the cause of this problem, and pointing out to me how to
correct this in Outlook Express.

Joanna

"Ray" wrote in message
...
You're right! That sure ain't normal.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!

. . . . . . . . . . .
"J Fortuna" wrote in message
...
Ray,
Actually no, what happened yesterday was definitely not a normal
function of
the ISP. As you point out, in a correctly functioning ISP, when the
maximum
is reached or when a certain amount of time has passed "the oldest go
away
from their server", but what happened to me yesterday was that the
newest
messages disappeared. One of the messages that disappeared was a message
by
molli in response to Diana's "Redland Loot". I can actually see it now
in
the archive at groups.google.com
(http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...n-iQ%404dv.net
posted yesterday at 18:45), and the other message that has disappeared
from
my ISP's server is the fertilizing questions post
(http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...speer2.tds.net
posted
yesterday at 19:09) that you, Ray, responded to this morning. My ISP has
your response, but they do not have the post with the question any more.
The
two posts disappeared within 4 hours after being posted. That is
definitely
not normal ISP behavior! Or shouldn't be anyway.
Joanna

"Ray" wrote in message
...
That's a function of your ISP's message retention methodology. Some
keep
a message for "X" days,
and some until that newsgroup has accumulated "Y" megabytes of total,
at
which point the oldest go
away from their server.

That's one of the reasons some of us gripe about people posting
excessively large images on ABPO, as
for some participants, it drastically shortens the time all of the
images
will be available on their
ISP's servers.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!

. . . . . . . . . . .
"J Fortuna" wrote in message
...
When I came home, I saw several new messages on rgo, and two of
these
messages, when I clicked on them led to the message "this message is
no
longer available on the server", and these were definitely new
messages!
Could there have been other messages that did not even make it that
far?
Maybe I am missing several fascinating new threads. :-( Grrr! Diana,
I
can
understand your frustration better now, and I wish I didn't.

Joanna