chas@ihuxe.UUCP (Charles Lambert) (06/26/85)
From: jbuck@epicen.UUCP (Joe Buck) > But this cretin (alex@ucla-cs.UUCP) has done a lot more than I first > realized. In almost every message he posts now, he changes the Followup-To > and Reply-To fields. > .... It seems we need a mechanism to isolate net.flame traffic > from other lists. > > ..... Lots of times people who are angry about some point > raised in a different newsgroup respond both to that newsgroup and net.flame. > Then the net.flamers see it, and respond with a followup both to net.flame > and to the original list, usually in a much more offensive manner than > the original posting. If it's a hot topic, the original list will be > swamped in flames. That's what's happened to net.women; in the last two > weeks it was the highest volume group because of this (in part). RIGHT! Net.flame is turning into what biologists would recognise as an unsuccessful parasite. It's destroying the body it feeds on. The network, as numerous people have repeated, was not created and can't be justified as a forum for the often mindless, usually unedifying raving that goes on in net.flame. That newsgroup is only tolerable as a harmless adjunct - it's even a useful steam-valve. But when it smears its excrement over the rest of the newsgroups it is stupidly threatening the existence of the net as a whole. We won't have anywhere to pontificate about what irritates us or indulge puerile discussion about bathroom habits if the other groups are strangled by careless posting. Think about that next time you decide to play a little prank on net.????? Unfortunately, with all the good intent in the world, followups will still be posted to multiple newsgroups. Joe Buck's suggestion of safety precautions in the software needs to be acted upon. So, Chuq or Gene or whichever of you volunteer workers provides the software, how about some screening for distribution of net.flame traffic? If you need more hands for the job of supporting the software, I'm willing to volunteer my time. Charlie Lambert @ the Death Star, IL.