Re: Troll Activity Going Through The Roof!!! Amazing!!!

In news:ea5a9aab-a6f3-4911-b74a-c0a6d322c0fc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Neil X. <neilxk@xxxxxxxxx> typed:
NB wrote:

Its useful for searching. But it also creates an environment where
the clueless post at random without awareness of usenet etiquette,


Google has permitted large numbers of individuals to access usenet who
never would have found it otherwise. That has it's good aspects and
its bad ones. It's definitely bad because, indeed, many folks who
"found" usenet via Google have absolutely no idea that usenet is a
culture of its own, with its own cultural norms and mores. And what's
worse, many that do come to realize that don't care. On the other
hand, the influx of Google users has breathed life into a medium that
is slowly dying. Even with Google, usenet traffic is decreasing as
internet use in general is exponentially rising.

Yes, and that is a shame, and as measured by ISPs, they use that as an
excuse to eliminate all or part of the usenet access which used to be a
standard part of every ISP package. They also jumped the opportunity to
follow false claims by the NYAG and toss all the binary newsgroups on the
basis of illegal activity in eight out of the hundreds that have been cast
off.


Google continues to be heavily criticized for allowing spammers and
scammers to operate with impudence, and even worse.


Yes, it is true that Google is a pernicious source of spam.
Maintenance of Google Groups is clearly a very low priority for
Google.


You will see from time to time
people making statements that are patently illegal, such as
exhorting people to racial violence against minorities. Those posts,
as well as obvious scams by sheisters and criminals, go absolutely
ignored by Google when reported.


I'm not sure that written prose on a computer screen advocating racial
violence is actually illegal, as distasteful as it is.

When you say something like rise up in rebellion, kill all the _________,
yeah, its illegal and deserves scrutiny by law enforcement. I am as liberal
as they come but that is and should be illegal. Your rights stop at the next
man's nose.... exhorting people to kill him steps beyond that.

Being a member
of a mob and yelling out "Beat him, he's a minority" is clearly
illegal, but first amendment rights are pretty broad in terms of
theoretical advocacy of illegal activity.

Actually, inciting mob violence is, and should be, a criminal act. The OP in
this thread is a person who, if you run a search on all his posts in this
group, has clearly crossed that line into criminal activity.

There are other ways to be criminal about posting, from invasions of
privacy, to causing harm to individuals, to engaging in child abuse and
there is plenty more that could be discussed. However common sense and
decency keeps that stuff off the radar screen and is not part of the
tendencies of normal well adjusted humans. However the laws are not intended
to control that part of the population, but rather, the sociopathic part who
as a very small group can do a very large amount of damage if unchecked.


But my point was, in a nutshell, that if people are lookng at my
posting volume through the eyes of the Google interface, it likely
seems more daunting, at least if they realize my posting is
organized, concentrated, and heavily thread oriented. To me, waiting
for a page to load every time you want to refer to the hierarchy, or
see the next few posts, is a monumental waste of time. But YMMV and
apparently it does.


I really don't care how much you post, FWIW. Everyone finds their own
way to entertain themselves, usenet is as good as any. And I'd
certainly rather read your posts than posts by, say, the OP to this
thread.

Thanky very much!


However I don't see how its elitism when low functioning means of
access replace higher functioning methods primarily because people
lack awareness, or worse, the willingness to learn to use a few
simple software tools to make their internet usage easier and better
organized.


It would be better to judge a post, or a poster, on the contents of
their posts, not the gateway they use to access usenet. The spam from
Google is undoubtedly a problem, but the influx of clueless newbies is
more accurately described as a "mixed blessing," IMO. I would like to
see usenet survive, and new users are essential if it is to happen.
Google is the main source of new eyes and brains accessing usenet.

I don't really, but I can tell when people get on newsgroups who are in a
broad sense ignorant of all that is etiquette and tradition on usenet, and
have no idea how newsgroups are structured or what the basis for the
individual groups is, and further are ignorant of recent posting history,
group charters, and respect for others within individual groups. That is a
problem that Google has created and has caused what was a fairly well
organized set of forums to collapse, not just because they draw away from
the NNTP services furnished by ISPs, but also because they create so much
oblivious and clueless activity on the margins of legitimate posting with
their utter failure to make any attempt to educate their users about Usenet
and its protocols and etiquette.

Anyway I agree with you that this has turned into a better discussion that
the way it started off.

Cheers,

MartyB in KC

.

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