Re: "What happened while I was gone to bring all this on?"

On Nov 2, 1:27 pm, Engineer <inva...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Timothy Travis wrote:
What happened while I was gone to bring all this on?
I came back here after an absence (I think it was the time before this time
I have come back) and found all this stuff had flooded the place.

The immediate cause was David crossposting to various other newsgroups.
That attracted Rod, and Rod attracted 316 -- both of whom are continuing
a fight that started elsewhere, neither of whom appears to have any
actual interest in Quakerism.  Then a fight broke out between David
and 316 that neither of them are willing to end. meanwhile, a string
of other kooks, flamers and trolls were attracted by David's
crossposting.

Let's get one thing straight. My current policy is not
to reply to the irritating mocking of 316 in her replies
to my recent posts on why Jesus Christ was historical
and not a myth.

Further, I decline responsibility for attracting kooks,
flamers, and trolls to SRQ over the course of the year.
I heartily wish they would go away and stay away.

So, I really would like Engineer to straighten out
his thinking and fly right.

That being said, we have had disruptive crossposting in the past, and
handled it without any problems.  What made the difference this time
is the fact that this time the majority of those who are Quakers or
interested in Quakerism decided two things without giving them a lot
of thought or discussion:

[1] They decided that there was something distasteful or rude about
    not responding to disruptive posters in general and David in
    particular.

Wrong - there has been, for all of 2008, absolutely
NO intellectual engagement with me over the
Thiering Thesis on the part of ANYBODY. I am
keenly disappointed.

[2] They decided that it was OK to leave for good when the threads
    dominated by disruptive posters flooded the newsgroup.

I heartily regret this development.

By refusing to ignore the bad and but being willing to ignore good
and bad together, they drove out much of the good and encouraged
more of the bad.

There is major truth in Engineer's analysis here.

That left the newsgroup filled with the insane ravings of Jon G.
and Hendry Leon, flame wars where both sides are reading
sci.archaeology or soc.history.ancient but crossposting the
flamewar here (which is what David wanted),

I did NOT want it.

and a core (Yowie,
Whiskers, John, etc.) who are willing to killfile the disruptive
posters and talk about Quakerism.

Engineer says he killfiled me; so, he apparently does not
know that I consistently spoke to Quakerism.

 Alas, this core group is too
few to achieve the critical mass needed to turn the group around,
and there is almost no chance of attracting any new good posters.

Yes - where are the new good posters?

All because of the bad decision on the part of some Quakers here
that it isn't OK to use a killfile to ignore trolls but it is OK
to unsubscribe and thus ignore everybody.
...

I don't consider that USENET has reached anywhere
near its potential to change the world for the better.

I recommend patience - ask God to find an instrument
to clean up SRQ.

David Christainsen
.

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