On Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:57:00 -0400, Gene Kearns
wrote:

On Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:37:04 -0400, hk penned the following well
considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

Gene Kearns wrote:
On Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:11:21 -0400, John H penned the following well
considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

I just looked at the headers and some of the messages in 'your rec.baots'.
I saw about 30 messages from 'hk' in the past few hours, and I would have
thought the personal attack crap would not show up in your system.

It doesn't appear to be working well, although it did delete a post from
Eisboch I was looking for.

I've thought about this and there is just so much time I'm willing to
invest in this. This wasn't an exercise in *MAKING* everybody "honest"
as it was as a gentle nudge in the right direction.

So... I need your help. We used to be pretty good at this, but it
seems to have fallen out of favor. What is it? It is prefacing an Off
Topic Post with OT. Let's say OT- .......an OH and a TEE and a hyphen.

I will soon begin blocking PEOPLE... yes... YOU.. people... if you
persist in posting either OT or attacks without the OT- in the subject
line.

Thus.... your choice. Admit up front that you are posting off topic or
get your persona banned entirely.




Why not just block everyone who posts OT?

That would give me what I want...a newsgroup devoted to boating
subjects... :)

You have no idea how close I am to that...

Of course, there would be about 3 posts a day getting through the
server. :)

For me? NOT a problem....

I wonder what you really mean in your penultimate sentence...it sems to
me you are saying it is quite OK to attack someone so long as you
preface it with an OT- Is that a correct interpretation?

Sure... I'm not the USENET police. I only control a teenie little
slice of it and that sits on the corner of my desk. Feel free to
slander and pee on each other's legs.... just don't expect me to
support it. (Or read it.) You folks have effectively proved that the
only ones that can stop this negative crap are you... yourselves....
using a bit of self control. I'm not your daddy or your guardian
angel... I'm just a guy hoping that rec.boats will straighten itself
out. If not, I'll close the server and move on to the moderated web
groups. Not my first choice, but you guys have made the decision for
me.....

Reggie, of course, will whine that his attack posts aren't attack
posts...they're just something else. :)

Harry, that last comment is a perfect example of what has been wrong
with rec.boats. You can probably credit yourself (among others) with a
very high score, if rec.boats dies. You win, everybody else loses....
congrats....

Harry is merely a symptom. ALL of the regulars killed rec.boats. Sure
Harry helped, but he couldn't have done it without your help. I've
seen other very busy newsgroups die in exactly the same way. They all
end with everyone pointing fingers at everyone else while the place
gets over run with spam, usenet kooks, and just plain OT posts. There
is nothing special about the demise of rec.boats. No autopsy needed.