Re: Damn, thsi used to be Alt.machines.cnc


"BottleBob" <bottlbob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:47450EC5.EA117E00@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Why wrote:

Now my kill filters are getting so long I need a bigger hard drive.

What caused this (used to be) a good news group to go to ***?
Other than Cliffy.

Dave:

Crossposting to kook groups and political partisanship is trashing the
group. Like others have stated, everyone knows who the major offenders
are.

IMO, two things are needed for change. One, a demonstrably clear
indication of what the majority of the group wishes. AND people that
have enough sense of community to abide by the wishes of the majority.


BB, another poll?

Sure, we can try it again. But for a survey to be the impetus for
change it has to have more than a mere handful of respondents. If
people don't make their wishes known, they have no grounds for complaint
when the group is flooded with posts counter to those wishes.
The moderated Practical Machinist site probably has 10 times the
on-topic machining volume as amc, with little to no political trash
talking.

One partial solution for cleaning out an ongoing crossposted thread is
to respond with something really outrageous that will guarantee multiple
responses, but leave off amc in the crossposted groups list. Then the
crazies can argue with themselves somewhere else. BUT if some misguided
troll is going to add amc back in to the crosspost list just to trash
the group... then it doesn't make much sense in even trying to clean up
the political kook threads.
IMO, there is absolutely no reason for ANYONE in amc to crosspost to
misc.survivalism or alt.usenet.kooks. There is virtually no-one in
those groups that is able and willing to make constructive CNC posts to
amc on a continual basis.




I see this all over Usenet. A buddy of mine went into alt.cats during
katrina asking for help to save his kitty stuck on the roof. Tell me that
wasn't poor taste.
My GOD the things he's done for fun on usenet. lol
But it's just usenet.
Even the wife of John Edwards wrote a book about her experiences on Usenet.
It was cool to hear her use the word "troll" on national tv. And she hangs
out in a cancer survivor group.
When asked if she thought there should be something legally done to stop
it, she replied "of course not!" It's a free forum. Then she said, "but that
doesn't mean we can't fight back, that's why I wrote this book".
So basically what we want is our own "personal" forum, that is about the
subjects "we" personally care about and no others. How democratic or
American does that sound? well, actually quite American now that I think
about it.

However, although America invented Usenet, and the uunet protocol, it now
belongs to no one. No country, no group. In fact the only way to own a
newsgroup is to flood it.
Iv'e worked on tecniques to stop flooding, to thwart trolling, to disrupt
cascading.
Iv'e worked out tecniques to distract trolling and have used them in this
group.
None of those(well except the muzzle bot) had used censorship as the
weopon.

Now imagine this newsgroup without the side chatter. Let me give an
example...
You check the newsgroup after work, and it says...0 messages.
same thing day after day. On the 4th day someone says "how can i stitch a
surface in mastercam x". And everyone ignores that persons post because its
"off topic".
This newsgroups description shows a group dedicated to machine sales.

Machine sales? How many posts this year were actually from machine sales?
10-20-50?

Here's my take on this and most will find it offensive, but its usenet, so
who cares. Bitch and i will ignore you, show up at my house and i will shoot
you. This is literally the first free speach we have had in my lifetime!

I need the chatter. Not to get a bunch of rubbish from C$#&&'s spamming,
or to listen to the 3-4 stalkers in this group chase after J$. But because I
care about a lot of things, I just don't care what a banker, or a housewife,
or a construction worker thinks about them, i care what my peers think about
them. Considering I'm in a cnc world right now, you gentlemen are my peers
online.

I talk about the same things in this newsgroup i talk to workers about.
Yesterday we got into a big discussion in the shop over the federal reserve
and how they are an illegal organization. I dont really care what my wife
thinks about it, or my stoned friends, I care what my buddies at work think
because we are the same kind of losers when it comes to thinking.

So what can be done.

1.) A usenet death penalty. It was opposed on me and 2 other friends
once(biig mistake). It's where you "secretly offline" get the regulars in a
newsgroup to collectively ignore a poster. And it works like a charm,
except...there's always a weak link, always someone who cant resist a troll.
So basically its useless.

2.) Complain to the posters ISP and get them kicked off.
Again...not a good idea. There's lots of open free uncensored servers out
there, and once someone crosses the line by sending a complaint(netkopping)
all the rules go bye bye. Good way to turn a newsgroup into a smoking
crator.

So basically those 2 things just dont work.

So what can be done?
There's filters. Nfilter is my favorite. I dont use it, but have studied
it, it can filter anything if your creative. It takes regex so all you need
to know is what do you want to filter, post it here and ill make a regex for
nfilter that gets those and no others.
You can ask nicely. It actually works if you can keep your emotions out of
it.
Reply once asking generically to stop, then dont reply. It makes a troller
feel like a jerk if done correctly.

best to ignore at the personal level.
Technically "moderation" is off topic.

GOD bless Usenet! The one thing Uncle sam doesn't control.



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