This group is out of control

Jun 19, 2007 25 Replies

When I subscribed to this group back in January, it was a good place for information. As of late, it has turned into something else. I know there are a lot of loyal subscribers who are willing to spend their time handing out valuable knowledge to others that are in need of assistance. Yet there are some who just seem intent on destroying the group and driving readers away. To them, I say congratulations, you have succeeded. To those that wish to stick with the group in the hope that it comes back under control, I say best of luck. To everyone else that has helped me out with their feedback in the past, I say thank you. In the mean time, I'm looking for another group.



Tim J.



Yep, I've been around here for close to 10 years. I've never seen the NG this bad. I'd drop in other NGs during that time and always wondered why the members put up with so much posted crap while we didn't have to in this group. Well, now we have to...or not. I unsubscribed a while back for months. I dropped back in and everything seemed OK. Boy, was I wrong.

What a wasteland.

tw

Sorry I can't help, I've no problems at all with the group and I'd be happy to show you how I do it, but I see you're running Mozilla and you'd have to get a newsreader that allows scoring as well as killfiling in order to eliminate all the trolls and troll responses.

News readers that support scoring are Xnews (that's what I use), 40tude Dialog, Pan (maybe, I know the old version does, not sure about the new version) and SLRN. The last two are more popular with Linux although there is a pretty good Windows port of the old Pan and a 32 bit windows version of SLRN.

If you do think about changing newsreaders, scoring help is readily available at news.software.readers along with any other help you might need.

This is Usenet. It is just part of the free service you get. If you don't like it find a moderated or otherwise restricted bulletin board. Honestly, I am not even paying attention to most of Bill and his pals.

Saludos cordiales,

Earle

Just never had to worry about it before. I guess it's time to step up.

tw

Although I agree it is way out of control. However, this "is" usenet. It is not moderated, which in a way is great as there are no delays in posts arriving quickly. Get yourself a real news reader, and add all the bozos to the killfile list and you should be good to go.

I'm afraid so, otherwise the only cure is to leave the group as I did after being here only a few months. That's how newsgroups die, unfortunately. I decided no trolls were going to drive me away from a newsgroup that contained information I needed so I'm back with a very modified scorefile and the trolls, along with the idiots who respond to them, are gone.

Ditto - still loitering about, just once a week instead of every day....

Dave Milne, Scotland '91 Grand Wagoneer, '99 TJ

Those stuck with doze as an OS should look to Hamster or Hamster Playground. Very good local spool and filter, but bandwidth intensive for binary groups. nFilter is still out there and it's good for most problems.

Of course there is Gravity and other news readers out there too.

Yep, I agree with you and that's why I've left a time or two. Problem is, when the guys involved in bringing the NG down ARE primary members it kind of cuts your options. Like others, I appreciate the positive contributions by Bill and Mike, but these are quickly getting outweighed by other activities. I'm still hoping for a return to normalcy.

tw

You could say that about just about any newsgroup anytime in Usenet's 20- odd year history. What were you expecting?

This is still a great group. I don=B4t have any filters but still get lots of help and good information here, thanks to the very experienced members. It is mainly just a matter of ignoring the noise.

Has anyone thought of starting a moderated BB via vBulletin and having us main members a part of it so that we can keep the spamming down to a minimum? I would definitely join if it were the same people as on here and would vote for Mike as one of the moderators. Just an idea ...

Start one, or join the ones already established:

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God Bless America, Bill O|||||||Omailto: snipped-for-privacy@aol.com
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It's VERY easy to start a moderated group on Yahoo or Google, just log on to either one (you'll have to create an account if you don't have one) select "groups" and follow directions to start a group. Then you come back here, announce the formation of the group, invite people to apply to join and you'll probably want to add maybe two more moderators.

The BIG problem is that someone has to want to spend the necessary time to moderate the group.

That, and someone might report you for OT posting, or something of that nature. ;) I know some of the guys got fed up and went to forums which can be moderated and much more civilized. I guess I'm just sentimental.

tw

"DougW" wrote in news:Z1Ydi.125088$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe24.lga:

Hamster is definitely my fan favorite. It pre-filters for my XNews client and it does so with any info in the headers. The only problem I have is finding out how to score on conditions like responders in threads of known trolls and/or K00ks.

But the caveat with that is you'll never see when someone is getting snowed on incorrect information and you would be there to stop that but can't because you have the bozo with the mis-information blocked from being seen.

For instance, and Doug knows this bozo - we have one poster in Nanae who constantly morphs and spews his hatred of a certain method. I have all that m0r0nis's posts pretty much blocked - and any of his respondents as well.

and now back into lurking.....

So will Xnew's score file w/o using Hamster. Besides, Hamster requires that you feed the little critter and clean it's cage. Sorry, couldn't help myself...

But you can see replies to the bozo if you want. I score replies to killed threads or posters as -5000 so they show up but greyed out. I can read them if I want to.

If you want help with scoring in Hamster or Xnews, go to news.software.readers and ask, there's some pretty expert people there.

I just came here and will give it an evaluation chance. However I'm curious why subscribe? I just came directly here using a trusty news reader.

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