If you see an odd or obscene posting, BEFORE you respond to it look
at the headers. If you see totally unrelated group names there like
flonk or net-abuse, either trim them off or don't respond at all.
Just ignore them.

They actually have contests to see how many fools they can goad into
responding. Don't be a fool.

Same thing when they try to start a Ford Vs. Toyota flame-fest by
crossposting between groups. We must be better than that... ;-)

--<< Bruce >>--
--
Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

In article <1qtbo1tg9j7tp8h96fanmvh18itf0a850s (AT) 4ax (DOT) com>, Bruce L.
Bergman <blPYTHONbergman (AT) earthlink (DOT) invalid> wrote:

Thank you, Bruce.

Brent

Agreed, Richard is our own private troll and we should defend his
attempts to stimulate off-topic conversation, pathetic as they may be.
Besides, it's much more fun to watch him blow a gasket than read the
obscene random noise generated by the hit-and-run buffoons.

"Bruce L. Bergman" wrote:
I agree with you and appreciate your posting this.
But this differs from the seemingly infinite number of OT posts
in this newsgroup ... how?

In article <43875B7E.C67C3D37 (AT) REMOVEcomcastTHIS (DOT) net>, ll
<lkslittle (AT) REMOVEcomcastTHIS (DOT) net> wrote:

If a particular poster is uniformly off-topic, you can filter him/her
permanently. But I have seen some valuable Toyota-centric contributions
from people who also can be infuriatingly off-topic, so I filter the
authors very sparingly. And there are a few contributors so frequently
insightful that I can grin at their occasional ventings.

I prefer filtering on the subject lines. As my father used to remind
me, "The mind is formed by what it takes in. Don't be a wastebasket."

Brent

Brent Secombe wrote:
I understand and I agree with you.

Filtering on subject lines doesn't work well for multiple reasons.

1) Some threads start out on topic but then get hijacked.
But _not all_ of the later posts in that thread are OT.
2) The sheer _volume_ of OT threads. The percent of new OT posts
on a daily basis is huge in relation to many other NGs.
3) Not all newsreaders make it easy/quick/convenient to kill
subject lines.

I read this NG to get useful information to help maintain our
Toyotas. And to make future purchase decisions. There are some
people _who could contribute useful information_ who take a look
at the ratio of OT to on topic posts in this NG, compare it to other
NGs that they read, and conclude that they won't tolerate that level
of NG abuse. The people who read this NG for useful information
are then the worse for it.

As for Bruce's reasonable request to not feed the trolls,
an objective read of the post appears to say don't feed
the _outside_ trolls. I don't see a reason to differentiate
between them.

In article <4388C10F.F88FDF26 (AT) REMOVEcomcastTHIS (DOT) net>, ll
<lkslittle (AT) REMOVEcomcastTHIS (DOT) net> wrote in part:

You're right on all counts. I'm using a legacy edition of Thoth, which
allows simple filtering on subjects. But yes, I do risk missing
contributions buried among the rants and insults.

Yes. OT's hurt all.

I tend to filter outside OT's sooner

Thank you for your comments.

Brent