away) to speak fairly freely about topics they find important to them.
> Since this is NOT a moderated group, it is more
> like a cocktail party than a college lecture - The topics may well
> circle around the stated focus of interest, but, can wander.
But like a gathering in your home, some respect for your rules and lifestyle go a long way. I'm as guilty as the next for participating on OT discussions, but I don't cross post to other groups or intentionally start flame wars. If a visitor to your home became overly boisterous, you'd ask that he leave wouldn't you? .
Bull! Filtering is limited because after a point, you're going to filter something out that you wanted to read, such as someone wanting ideas for church pews. As for ignoring, with the amount of messages in this newsgroup, it's easy to miss something that is on topic. The only ideal option is for people to agree to adhere mostly to a newsgroup subject.
General consensus, if it is wide enough is sufficient to control what appears here. It's the people with the opinion that usenet is their own personal playground (like you perhaps?) that are the greatest problem.
To be honest, I don't worry about missing something. There are millions of posts on usenet on tens of thousands of forums. There are millions and millions of web sites. Any of these could have information I may find interesting. So what? Life's too short to be concerned about it. I filter rigorously, and ignore very, very many posts, threads and people on the two dozen or so forums I follow with any regularity.
??? Can you provide any evidence that I've behaved as you suggest in this or other forums?
And really, if you or others think rec.woodworkign is somehow out of control or overrun by off-topic posts and trolls, you show a woeful ingnorance about usenet in general.
I was responding to your statements: "This is usenet, not someone's home. The ONLY effective options are to filter and/or ignore." To me, it sounds like you're suggesting that it's a waste of time trying to control the swarf, so why bother?
The rec is not out of control otherwise there would be far fewer woodworkers here than there are. However, that doesn't mean for one second that anyone should become complacent or not continually attempt to try to clean some things up.
It is rather interesting to see the furor arising out of what started as one single thread with a very easily identifiable title that would lead anyone to recognize that it was most likely religious in nature (a single click on the first posting would have confirmed that). The expansion of the thread to other threads (such as this one) was initiated by those most strident in denouncing the existence of that single religious thread. In general, when one observes rec.ww it has always been a free-ranging set of discussions, most often centered around woodworking topics, but sometimes straying into areas of interest to the woodworkers having those discussions. Depending upon the topic, woodworkers have always had the choice of ignoring or participating -- nobody participates, the thread dies. What is really surprising is the vehemence of those who decry the religious postings vs. for example political or other types of postings. It almost as if the very topic of religion causes these people either deep angst or fear, to the point of theophobia, such that the very mention of religion or anything religious causes such deep-seated anxiety that they shrink from the very thought of *any* religious discussions occuring anywhere near their presence. It seems to belie the thought that maybe if the subject isn't mentioned, the ramifications of rejection won't have to be dealt with.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
It *is* a waste of time. No amount of hectoring is going to stop those who want to post OT and don't care who they bother, from doing so. You can filter them out; you can ignore them; or you can get upset. Take your pick. :-)
Didn't say that I had any definitive solutions, but for a start I'd suggest you don't reply to them or reply to them with the post redirected to another newsgroup. If enough newsgroup members adhere take steps to control the problem, it will get fixed. Of course there's always going to be the occasional marauding trolls, but they're controllable with enough support.
Right. It's all about signal:noise ratios. You're gonna miss some signal by filtering, but as long as you took out more noise, you're still ahead of the game.
I love the Lord very much too and have been saved!!!!!!!!!!, but I subscribed to this NG to learn about woodworking and get advice. If you folks want to talk about Baptism and other scripture topics, why don't you all startup your own newsgroup and have at it?? I would be interested in accessing it occasionally.
What problem? Thanks to judicious use of filters and killfiles, I rarely see any of the garbage. It seems that you would prefer to see it, and complain about it, than to not see it.
When a problem exists that: (a) isn't harming you in any way, (b) can easily be ignored without harm to you or anyone else, AND (c) canNOT be solved by your efforts no matter what you do... it doesn't make a lot of sense to expend oneself in a futile effort to solve it. If you prefer to live your life tilting at windmills and building up your blood pressure, you're welcome to it. I have better ways to spend my time, and more important things to get worked up about (e.g. the recent US Supreme Court decision regarding eminent domain, but that's a whole 'nother issue).
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