Time to split the group?

[Tom B]

These are unprecedented times, the dangers are real... the concerns legitimate. Granted this wasn't intended to be a forum for such, but has evolved into an eclectic group of strong minded people, none of whom shirk the rights of the

1st Amendment. It is hoped that they all will at least conform to the "OT" preface to their subject line. If so those uninterested can easily avoid those posts. I agree that this is primarily a woodworking group (and wouldn't have it any other way) in truth however, I don't miss the posts about Norms brads! Tom

[Dave Balderstone]

The wreck is a community. In any community there will be conflict.

I've been hanging around here for a few years, and have pissed off some people, some people have pissed me off... That's what filters are for. I go back and revisit mine from time to time. Turn some off, create some new ones, you don't have to talk to, or listen to, everybody.

Things erupt from time to time, but over all, in my experience, the majority of the conversation in this community is about wooddorking.

People come and go, too. I miss JOAT, and Keeter, and Phully, and many others who have stepped away. But new people keep coming in, which is sometimes amazing to me in terms of the general trend of usenet.

My $0.02...

[J. Clarke]

There are many venues for "bandying about beliefs". Having one more is not going to make the discussion move from here to there.

What makes you think that anybody participating in such a discussion cares about the size of the audience?

They don't care about the size of fish they are or the size of the puddle, only that someone posted a statement to which they take exception.

Political threads occur in every non-moderated newsgroup on USENET. There's nothing that can be done about it lawfully except liberal use of the killfile. Making another empty newsgroup will not cause the discussion to move there.

[Tom B]

Ah, darn... they don't even drop by to say Hi? sad days.

[Upscale]

On Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:33:12 -0600, Dave Balderstone

Nice comment. Certainly worth more that $0.02.

[Dave Balderstone]

Phully popped in a couple of months back, said "Oy!" and vanished again.

[Dave Balderstone]

Thanks, Up... Makes me happy I disabled your filter!

;-)

[Dave Balderstone]

Perzactly.

Anyone who thinks otherwise should go visit news.groups

[Jack Stein]

But, he uses too much glue....

[Jack Stein]

Someone bitched about all the off topic stuff before, stating that those participating in off topic, political crap didn't participate in the woodworking threads. I went through about 10 days of a particularly average, angry,off topic, fight fest and listed all the participants. For the most part, it looked like a who's who of this group.

I've been participating in "newsgroups" since the FidoNet (FightoNet) days, and it was no different then. Fighto net was moderated and on topic posts were generally requested, but seldom maintained. Flame fests broke out on most high traffic groups, and that hasn't changed a bit in all these years, and I suspect it never will change.

Giant, off topic threads start because people enjoy them. Those that don't interest you can easily be skipped, manually, or with a filter. Talking about it will not change anything, other than adding to the off topic posts....

[Jack Stein]

There is one thing you can do besides killfile it, you can add to it:-)

[Swingman]

I ran a Fido node and echo mail relay back in the 80's & 90's.

The political bickering on the wRec is child's play compared to the OS/2 versus Windows war's in the early to mid nineties on FidoNet ...

[D'ohBoy]

Are you talkin' to me? Cuz if you google my participation here, I post overwhelmingly *ON TOPIC* - certainly 90% (and likely better) of my 630 some odd posts are about woodworking questions or answers.

Now, I will admit to being politically aware, active, and to being an OT poster - but I always mark as OT, and if that ain't enough for you, screw ya.

And if you don't like political posts, or off-color jokes, or unvarnished rhetoric, and can't resist opening that message marked OT that clearly is gonna have you spewing spittle as you type, get yer ass somewhere else.

Unless, of course, you like it when your blood pressure goes atmospheric and your undies are all bunched up - which I can tell some around here do!

D'ohBoy

[Larry Jaques]

On Wed, 31 Mar 2010 08:51:21 -0400, the infamous Jack Stein scrawled the following:

Only until he finishes the work. (Then you can see where he smeared wet glue all over the place with the wet rag.) I prefer to pre-finish pieces before glueup to prevent that from happening, let alone showing. Camera flashes make it 10x more noticeable, too.

-- May those who love us, love us; And may those that don't love us, May God turn their hearts; And if he doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, So we'll know them by their limping. --old Gaelic blessing

[Larry Jaques]

On Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:04:54 -0400, the infamous Jack Stein scrawled the following:

One of the nice things about Agent is that you have an Ignore key. The "I" key is also actuated by the, you guessed it, the BIRD FINGER, for extra enjoyment by the filterer.

So smile, and _flip off_ those OT posters, boys and girls!

-- May those who love us, love us; And may those that don't love us, May God turn their hearts; And if he doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, So we'll know them by their limping. --old Gaelic blessing

[Steve Turner]

I messed around a wee bit with Fido in the eighties, but I didn't let it suck me in too far.

Ah yes, the operating system wars. I lived all through the first part as an outsider, then came into the IBM OS/2 programming center in 1993 right after the divorce. I can still see all the OS/2 source code from where I'm sitting.

[Joe]

Or you could use the titebond flourescent glue and a black light.

[Swingman]

I'll never forget feeling the first time I got a computer to connect to another computer across town ... on the same level of the very first time I played a guitar chord against a friends banjo strum ...both religious experiences that made your hands shake.

[Robatoy]

Surely the gittar chord was far more satisfying....

[keithw86]

"Dueling Banjos"? ;-)