"Martin Brown" wrote in message

Unfortunately Google groups tends to a spam magnet and gmail a spammer
haven these days so it tends to be saturated with junk. A lot of people
have permanently killfiled.

I'm not aware of any spam ever making it's way to these groups via google
groups (not that a gmail account is relevant either way). Indeed
surprisingly little spam seems to get through fortunately. Plenty of regular
posters post via google groups (I don't but would as a second choice if not
using a newsreader) and many have a gmail account (I do).

Regards,
Peter T