Record density of crud and spam

[me]

The original was posted with follow-up set to comp.programming.
The idea was to see if others were experiencing similar levels, and
what, if anything, could be done about it. Note that topicality,
and thus spam handling, is always on-topic. All responses should
have been on comp.programming, and only deliberate avoidance of the
follow-up has put anything on any other newsgroups.

The original message has produced none of the desired responses.

You are incorrect in your assessment about what is and is not on topic.
There are various individuals who claim that whatever their favorite
topic happens to be is on-topic everywhere, using arguments ranging from
"everyone gets spam so discussing spam is on-topic here" to "[ abortion
| gun control | George Bush | my religion | MLM ] is so important that it
is on-topic here" to "we all use operating systems to OS flames are on-topic
here" to "the problem I am having with my PC is so important to me that it is
OK to ask about it here where the smart people hang out talking about C."

All such arguments, yours included, are flawed because they ignore the
fact that most people don't select comp.lang.c out of the tens of
thousands of other newsgroups to access posts about the C programming
language and whatever other topics CBFalconer has decided without taking a
poll are on-topic. They select comp.lang.c to access posts about the C
programming language.

Your notion that some subjects that are on-topic everywhere does not
scale. If it was a good idea, then replacing all newsgroups with
misc.misc and having a thousand post a second there would be a good idea.
Some subjects being on-topic everywhere does not scale, but narrow
definitions of what is on-topic and dedicated newsgroups for each topic
does.

In addition, followups are a suggestion, not an order. If you get to post
whatever you want to whatever newsgroups you choose, you have no reason to
criticize others for doing as you do. As you are no doubt pondering while
you compose your reply to this, My suggestion -- setting followups to
news.admin.net-abuse.usenet -- leaves you with the choice of ignoring that
suggestion and having everyone who is reading this read your reply, or
following that suggestion and having nobody who is reading this read your
reply. Those who reply to your posts have the same decision to make.

You should also be aware that discussions about newsgroup spam are just as
off-topic in comp.programming as they are in comp.lang.c (unless you
have a computer program that addresses the problem). There already exists a
newsgroup dedicated to that topic: news.admin.net-abuse.usenet. I suggest
that you post there where your posts really are on-topic.

 

[Moog]

Roy Culley illuminated alt.os.linux.ubuntu by typing:

Now't wrong with his .sig. The fact that teranews adds a second one is
hardly his fault. Any decent newsreader will strip everything after
the first '-- ' line.

Hmmm....

There *is* something wrong with his sig. There are two of them.
Accepted usenet guidelines tell you to limit your signature to 4
lines. *Fact* his two signatures add up to more than that.
He is also completely insufferable and has a penchant for telling others
how to post correctly. This leads many to pull him up on his double sig.
Myself included.

I would probably let it pass if he wasn't such a turgid,
netiquette-bothering, old fruit.

If he *wants* to use two, it's fine. However, he is breaking
guidelines by doing it. This is by choice. Couple this with the fact
that CBF rarely posts anything other than his "how to post to usenet"
diatribes (in this NG anyway) and you'll see why people mention his
double-sigging and see it as an annoyance.

Also, there aren't many newsreaders that strip from the first
sig de-limiter. They generally strip from the last. Why? Because only
fickle old fsckwits post two of them. slrn certainly doesn't strip
from the first instance. Neither do most of the other readers I've used.

As for Teranews adding another sig. There are plenty of free and low
cost news-servers that give as good (if not better) a service without
adding their own spam.

HTH. HAND.

 

[Default User]

Couple this with the fact
that CBF rarely posts anything other than his "how to post to usenet"
diatribes (in this NG anyway) and you'll see why people mention his
double-sigging and see it as an annoyance.

I don't know which of the several "this NG" is, but in comp.lang.c he
post frequently on many things besides netiquette.

Also, there aren't many newsreaders that strip from the first
sig de-limiter. They generally strip from the last.

Mine cuts from the first one. Admittedly XanaNews isn't high on the
list of popular newsreaders.



Brian

 

[Moog]

Default User illuminated alt.os.linux.ubuntu by typing:

I don't know which of the several "this NG" is, but in comp.lang.c he
post frequently on many things besides netiquette.

If you hadn't have trimmed the attribustion line, you'd have seen
*exactly* which group I was referring to.

*CLUE:* Look upwards

Mine cuts from the first one. Admittedly XanaNews isn't high on the
list of popular newsreaders.

I used to use Xananews many moons ago. A great piece of software.
However, does it still suffer from errors when the message files fill
up?

That put me off and I switched over to MESNews. Also a very nice piece
of software. It's worth a try if you can be bothered.

 

[Default User]

Default User illuminated alt.os.linux.ubuntu by typing:

If you hadn't have trimmed the attribustion line, you'd have seen
*exactly* which group I was referring to.

*CLUE:* Look upwards

Ah. Well, as I wasn't saving anything from the previous posters, I had
deleted the unused attributions line by the time I wrote the actual
message. Point taken though. I've trimmed distribution to "yours" and
"mine".

I used to use Xananews many moons ago. A great piece of software.
However, does it still suffer from errors when the message files fill
up?

I'm not sure which errors you mean.

That put me off and I switched over to MESNews. Also a very nice piece
of software. It's worth a try if you can be bothered.

I might, but XanaNews is doing what I need for the most part. I
switched to it for more aggressive filtering ability. It's not perfect,
especially with it breaking URLs that longer than the width.



Brian

 

[CBFalconer]

It was a dumb plan. Dumb with a capital UMB.

It's not up to you to determine where my posts should go. If the topic
was only appropriate for comp.programming (and I can't make that
connection) then that should have been the ONLY newsgroup you posted to.

You were wrong. You were off-topic. You inappropriately cross-posted.
You inappropriatedly set follow-ups. You owe apologies to all the
newsgroups involved.

Well, I am still not really convinced. However I am sure that the
majority here agree with you, so I will shut up and try not to
repeat the gaff. I hope that is an adequate apology.

 

[Default User]

CBFalconer wrote:

Well, I am still not really convinced. However I am sure that the
majority here agree with you, so I will shut up and try not to
repeat the gaff. I hope that is an adequate apology.

Of course. Best put it all behind us. Thanks.




Brian