Re: CSS vs WoS forums

On 2006-05-02, Chris Young <chris.usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I wouldn't go that far. They have their advantages, but newsgroups
are easier to navigate, use and tell which posts you've read, and
haven't read.

And they're also not satan's spawn!

Moderation is a double-edged sword. It has benefits (such as the
annoying tosser you can't get rid of on Usenet, easily being banned on
a web forum... and then re-registering under another name and starting
again.

The problem with moderation is that it relies on a moderator, some of
which can have strange outlooks on life. I'm on one forum where a
group member started harassing me because I talked about a sub-genre
that he wasn't interested in (but others were), stole pictures that
I'd taken and sold prints of them on ebay and did this to a number of
people, I then gave him retrospective permission to use the pictures
and received abuse in return, then when I told him to "*** off" on
the forum he threatened to beat me up at the next meeting. I was
threatened by the moderator with being thrown off the forum for using
the word "***", and insulted into the bargain, but the other chap
wasn't even slapped on the wrists. The moderator got no support from
others but I got plenty, so eventually he didn't throw me off but I
got no apology for his threats and insults, and the other tosspot is
still on the forum a year later, acting like a *** and ripping other
people's work off.

I guess with newsgroup you can report them to their ISP and
get them kicked off entirely, making them think twice about doing it
again), and it has drawbacks as well.

Fat chance, ISPs don't generally care. I am however an adult and if
there's a tosspot around I don't care, but when the tosspot is the
moderator then that's more of a problem. I've always found moderated
forums to be strained as you always have this feeling that someone's
watching with a big hammer to hand. I've not generally fallen foul of
them but still don't like the feeling a moderator brings.

I also don't like IRC for similar reasons, as the channel ops are
rarely anything more than power-hungry social outcasts. I tried
joining a MAME-related channel once, but sadly I joined at a time when
the only other person on was the bored op, 5 seconds after joining and
before I'd even typed anything, my IP address gets blocked due to him
not liking my nickname (Unabomber, my nickname amongst work
colleagues). I still can't join that channel even if I wanted to as
it's my IP address that's blocked.

Personally, I can't be bothered to check the WOS forums, it's far
easier to grab c.s.s - my newsreader doubles up as a mailing-list-
reader so I'm going to be using it anyway - and read it at my
leisure,

Also if WoS vanishes for any one of a large number of reasons, you
lose the posts, whereas with newsgroups and email lists you either
have your own personal archive, or can get them from google.

Whoops, sorry for the long post, it's the morning and I'm still waking
up..

--
Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!
.

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