Peggie Hall wrote:
There's been a barrage of 'em here and rec.boats.cruising. I'm not
about to click on any of 'em, and it doesn't look like anyone else is
willing to either...so they have to be malicious. Anyone know just what
kind of mischief some idiot is trying to make happen?

They're actually messages someone has sent out to cancel (i.e., delete)
posts. Normally newsreaders don't show these messages. They could
have been sent out by the original author(s) of the posts, but more
likely someone spammed the group and their ISP or someone cancelled the
spam posts.

Sometimes people in flame wars maliciously cancel each others' posts,
but if that was the case here someone would be letting us know.

So, nothing dangerous with looking at these messages.

Tim