A sad feeling...

Mr. Moose · 2005-11-05T16:38:06+00:00

Many years ago, I used to enjoy the newsgroup. Therewere some incredibly helpful people there, real experts who had veryuseful advice that was accurate and truly helpful. It was a fun,interesting, good place to be. I enjoyed it. A couple years later, the political crap started. Buttheads from allcorners of the political table started changing the topic to goofypolitical arguments. It got angrier and angrier. Now it's a wasteland. It's no fun, and I don't go there anymore. Iused to share, but no more. I never posted politically there, andnever will, but it was no fun to pull headers and see two on topicposts and 50 off topic posts that were mostly just people being jerksto each other. I see that the slippery slope is here too. Here's how to avoid it.1. Never post off topic. 2. Never respond to an off-topic post. People who post off-topic arelooking for a reaction. If they don't get it, they try a few moretimes and then stop. 3. Never try to convince someone they are wrong. Doing this on anewsgroup is like writing your message on a baseball bat and thenhitting someone in the back of the head with it. Guess what - theydidn't read or care about the message, they are simply mad at the jerkwho hit them with the bat!!4. If you have to write OT on it, then you are off topic. Don't postoff topic. 5. I don't care how conservative, liberal, religious, or whatever youare. In this newsgroup, you are a woodworker. There are not anyenemies in here. If you start a fight, you are just creating moreanger and tension and not solving anything. You are more likely tomake a difference and convert people to your way of thinking if youare first an ethical, moral, and well-behaved person inside thisnewsgroup, then make friends who you contact outside the newsgroup,and then have actual discussion with them. The bat won't work. Really.6) If you write or repond to an off-topic message, don't send it rightaway. Walk away, then return an hour or two later. Read what youwrote. (This is the most...

A sad feeling...

Nov 05, 2005 44 Replies

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Luigi Zanasi 20 years ago

On Sat, 05 Nov 2005 23:37:11 GMT, Groggy scribbled:

Other than noting that a post about how the wreck should operate is

*on-topic*, I share Groggy's sentiments.

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

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bridger 20 years ago

nope. that sort of post should be directed to rec.woodworking.d (which doesn't exist)

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Luigi Zanasi 20 years ago

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 11:09:37 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@all.costs scribbled:

Ok, let's split the group then.

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

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Mr. Moose 20 years ago

Yeah, I bet ya Strunk and White didn't actually try to write their book after several sleepless nights with a teething toddler. Otherwise it'd go something like this.

"Make sure you freakin' include an apostrophe or something like that, maybe it's a comma, I don't know, but put in some damn punctuation and an ampersand, chicks really dig those, right Strunky?"

"Yeah, and adjectives. Lotsa adjectives. Stop using verbs if you must, but keep the adjectives."

"And no passive voice. God I hate the passive voice! It makes me want to break all my furniture!"

Mark, who is going to say goodnight to his son and do some turning. :)

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Groggy 20 years ago

If it's an uneven number, who gets the hair lip?

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