How many complain?

[LR]

I don't know if this is OT or not, but I was curious, so I'm going to
ask anyway. Forgive me.

How many of you complain about egregious off topic posting? Of course,
what each of us considers to be egregious will vary, so please allow me
to clarify. I'm not talking about the occasional breach of netiquette. A
posting here or there about a job which generally can be handled by
suggesting a more proper course of action to the poster. I'm not
talking about the occasional system specific post or even the occasional
question about Java, BASIC etc.

No. I'm wondering about the persistent rude insulting poster.

I ask because I suspect that certain companies that provide the ability
to do usenet postings look at the number of complaints and decide what
to do on that basis. But of course I could be wrong.

And the reason I'm asking here and now is that we seem to be getting a
visit from such a poster.

So how many of you have taken a look at the poster's headers and
complained? A show of hands please.

TIA,

LR

 

[cplusplus]

HEY LOSER GET LOST AND GET A LIFE

 

[Daniel T.]

So how many of you have taken a look at the poster's headers and
complained? A show of hands please.

Not me, I just kill-filed the guy.

 

[saneman]

I don't know if this is OT or not, but I was curious, so I'm going to
ask anyway. Forgive me.

How many of you complain about egregious off topic posting? Of course,
what each of us considers to be egregious will vary, so please allow me
to clarify. I'm not talking about the occasional breach of netiquette. A
posting here or there about a job which generally can be handled by
suggesting a more proper course of action to the poster. I'm not
talking about the occasional system specific post or even the occasional
question about Java, BASIC etc.

No. I'm wondering about the persistent rude insulting poster.

I ask because I suspect that certain companies that provide the ability
to do usenet postings look at the number of complaints and decide what
to do on that basis. But of course I could be wrong.

And the reason I'm asking here and now is that we seem to be getting a
visit from such a poster.

So how many of you have taken a look at the poster's headers and
complained? A show of hands please.

TIA,

LR

I think its funny I like to read his replies. Hope he becomes a more
productive poster in the future. I like the part where we are to vote
for him as sheriff of the group.

 

[Markus Moll]

Hi

And the reason I'm asking here and now is that we seem to be getting a
visit from such a poster.

Yeah, he'll get tired. Or school starts again. Or whatever.
Unfortunately there is little you can do about kids who find it funny to
insult people and wait for their reaction (they would never do the same if
it was face to face, though). The best would be to complain to their
parents (or their ISP, in this case) and then just ignore them.

So how many of you have taken a look at the poster's headers and
complained? A show of hands please.

Well. I did. I have also adjusted my filter settings...

Markus

 

[werasm]

I think its funny I like to read his replies. Hope he becomes a more
productive poster in the future. I like the part where we are to vote
for him as sheriff of the group.

Hah hah. Yes, I voted for him and he became sheriff. He has a star - a
single one. ;-). How about he shows us some real programming. I've
also found it amusing, but at some point I just ignore and continue.
Regard, W

 

[Rolf Magnus]

I don't know if this is OT or not, but I was curious, so I'm going to
ask anyway. Forgive me.

How many of you complain about egregious off topic posting? Of course,
what each of us considers to be egregious will vary, so please allow me
to clarify. I'm not talking about the occasional breach of netiquette. A
posting here or there about a job which generally can be handled by
suggesting a more proper course of action to the poster. I'm not
talking about the occasional system specific post or even the occasional
question about Java, BASIC etc.

No. I'm wondering about the persistent rude insulting poster.

I ask because I suspect that certain companies that provide the ability
to do usenet postings look at the number of complaints and decide what
to do on that basis. But of course I could be wrong.

And the reason I'm asking here and now is that we seem to be getting a
visit from such a poster.

So how many of you have taken a look at the poster's headers and
complained? A show of hands please.

Well, usually I would immediately send an e-mail to the address given in the
Complaints-To header entry. However, I don't think this would have any
success in this case. The problem is that most postings of that kind, as
well as most spam postings, nowadays get posted through google groups. I
don't know how much they do about complaints, but even if they decide to
block an account, nothing stops the poster from simply opening a new one.
Actually, IMHO it would be a lot better if the posting feature was removed
from google groups. Since this feature is available, the number of such
postings is growing quickly.

 

[Dave Shooter]

Well, usually I would immediately send an e-mail to the address given in the
Complaints-To header entry. However, I don't think this would have any
success in this case. The problem is that most postings of that kind, as
well as most spam postings, nowadays get posted through google groups. I
don't know how much they do about complaints, but even if they decide to
block an account, nothing stops the poster from simply opening a new one.
Actually, IMHO it would be a lot better if the posting feature was removed
from google groups. Since this feature is available, the number of such
postings is growing quickly.

Out of curiosity I sent a mail to (e-mail address removed) and got this
reply:

<googleReply>

Thank you for your note. Google does not regularly monitor or censor
postings sent to Google Groups, but we do try to prevent wide-scale spam
and other forms of Usenet abuse. Please be assured that the information
you sent to us is being collected and taken into account. While we
understand how annoying off-topic posts can be, we aren't able to pursue
most complaints we receive about them. We are using the information you
provide to make large-scale improvements in preventing abuse. We
appreciate your help in our efforts to increase the quality of Google
Groups.

</googleReply>

 

[LR]

LR wrote:

Well, usually I would immediately send an e-mail to the address given in the
Complaints-To header entry. However, I don't think this would have any
success in this case. The problem is that most postings of that kind, as
well as most spam postings, nowadays get posted through google groups. I
don't know how much they do about complaints, but even if they decide to
block an account, nothing stops the poster from simply opening a new one.
Actually, IMHO it would be a lot better if the posting feature was removed
from google groups. Since this feature is available, the number of such
postings is growing quickly.

Google also provides the NNTP-Posting-Host in the header, which for our
current pest was 59.93.220.192 in their last post. I did a little
searching and complained there. It appears to be
(e-mail address removed). But of course, I may be wrong about that. If
anyone finds out, could you please let me know.

Also, as pointed out in another post in this thread, google says they
don't pursue most complaints. So I'm wondering if more complaints means
they do.

LR

 

[Richard James]

I don't know if this is OT or not, but I was curious, so I'm going to
ask anyway. Forgive me.

In some newsgroups you can put [OT] in the subject line if you feel the
subject is offtopic. But this sort of discussion is exactly on topic for a
newsgroup since it is about defining posting behavior.

No. I'm wondering about the persistent rude insulting poster.

I ask because I suspect that certain companies that provide the ability
to do usenet postings look at the number of complaints and decide what
to do on that basis. But of course I could be wrong.

And the reason I'm asking here and now is that we seem to be getting a
visit from such a poster.

So how many of you have taken a look at the poster's headers and
complained? A show of hands please.

I haven't complained I've just ignored him. If nobody responds to him then
he will eventually go away. Some people use a killfile for this purpose,
which automatically hides his posts.

The big problem comes when people reply to him. Not only are they
encouraging his behavior but also any one who is using a killfile will see
the other persons post, which is totally irrelevant and a waste of time to
them. The solution to this is when someone replies to him post a please do
not feed the troll message.

Richard James

 

[Ian Collins]

LR wrote:
I haven't complained I've just ignored him. If nobody responds to him then
he will eventually go away. Some people use a killfile for this purpose,
which automatically hides his posts.

The big problem comes when people reply to him. Not only are they
encouraging his behavior but also any one who is using a killfile will see
the other persons post, which is totally irrelevant and a waste of time to
them. The solution to this is when someone replies to him post a please do
not feed the troll message.

Mozilla based news readers and probably others have the filter rule
"ignore thread" which works well for known trolls.

 

[James Kanze]

I don't know if this is OT or not, but I was curious, so I'm going to
ask anyway. Forgive me.

How many of you complain about egregious off topic posting? Of course,
what each of us considers to be egregious will vary, so please allow me
to clarify. I'm not talking about the occasional breach of netiquette. A
posting here or there about a job which generally can be handled by
suggesting a more proper course of action to the poster. I'm not
talking about the occasional system specific post or even the occasional
question about Java, BASIC etc.

No. I'm wondering about the persistent rude insulting poster.

I ask because I suspect that certain companies that provide the ability
to do usenet postings look at the number of complaints and decide what
to do on that basis. But of course I could be wrong.

And the reason I'm asking here and now is that we seem to be getting a
visit from such a poster.

So how many of you have taken a look at the poster's headers and
complained? A show of hands please.

Is it worth the bother. The person obviously has serious
psychological problems; the only "useful" reaction would be to
somehow obtain psychological help for him. Since I have no
means of doing this, I just ignore them.

It seems rather obvious to me that his postings are a jelous
reaction to the fact that most of us here have well paying jobs,
or are training for them, and are well accepted members of the
general society, considered as more or less "successful" by our
friends and neighbors. Presumably, that's not his case, and
he's jelous. I wouldn't worry about it---in the end, it's his
problem, not yours. If you're in a position to help him, you
probably should, but most of us aren't.

 

[Guest]

This is not only true for kill-files. Some postings (I've seen it mostly
happen to spam) are already filtered by several news servers. In this case,
the same happens. You never get the original posting, but you do see the
reply.


But it might filter too much if the troll - as the one here does - posts to
existing threads. Or does that rule only affect sub-threads started by the
offending poster?

No, it takes whole threads.

 

[Rolf Magnus]

This is not only true for kill-files. Some postings (I've seen it mostly
happen to spam) are already filtered by several news servers. In this case,
the same happens. You never get the original posting, but you do see the
reply.

Mozilla based news readers and probably others have the filter rule
"ignore thread" which works well for known trolls.

But it might filter too much if the troll - as the one here does - posts to
existing threads. Or does that rule only affect sub-threads started by the
offending poster?

 

[moschops]

It seems rather obvious to me that his postings are a jelous
reaction to the fact that most of us here have well paying jobs,
or are training for them, and are well accepted members of the
general society, considered as more or less "successful" by our
friends and neighbors. Presumably, that's not his case, and
he's jelous. I wouldn't worry about it---in the end, it's his
problem, not yours. If you're in a position to help him, you
probably should, but most of us aren't.

Already can't see him. You're right, though; this sort of thing (when it
continues for more than one or two posts) is usually about envy. It
seems this troll envies people who can code, and oddly enough also has
an Oedipus complex. I shouldn't giggle really, but I just can't help myself.

I know. I'm a bad person.

'Chops