OT: for all the off topic complainers

Please note, this is not designed to be a complaint about people who complain about OT posts, I am just trying to get something constructive started.

Proposal:

1)

Instead of working on massive complants about OT posts, how about we work on getting OT posters to put OT at the start of their messages ?

Seems like half the OT posters don't know how or why to do that.

This is the most practical solution to OT posts, and it works. We can filter them out.

2)

How about the OT post complainers PLEASE show you are tuned in to what is happening by also using the OT: format for subjects !

Thank you.

Reply to
Scott Moore
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Good idea Scott And while your at it why not count the number of machine posts we get in a month then figure out how to get the people that answer posts in here more then once a week.

I think cross posting to non machine groups is the real culprit and am trying to be careful of that in the future.

If you could get more machine posts in here That would work for me

Tom

Reply to
invntrr

Reply to
Scott Moore

Unfortunately, I *like* some of the ones marked OT. Now, if Nick's suggestion were taken to mark the specifically political ones "POL", I could filter without worrying about missing some of the more fun To posts.

For that matter -- if I *were* filtering out those marked "OT", I would not have even seen this one.

As it is, I have to filter on a thread by thread basis.

Again -- better to use two -- one the "OT", and one marked "POL" (which truly is the bulk of the Off Topic stuff anyway), so we could pick and choose more easily.

Part of the problem with adding "OT" part way through a thread is that some newsreaders (or newsreader-wannabes) don't handle threading by the "References: " header properly, and thus mark it as a different thread, so somebody trying to follow it may lose that branch -- and they may be the ones most needing to follow it.

Enjoy, DoN.

P.S. I notice that the user whose username starts with "Ignoramus" (followed by some long number) has moved to the "loosers and twits" news server (alt.net) which will never kick *anyone* out, no matter how obnoxious they are.

I set my news server up to reject any articles from that newsgroup (and thus rendered "news.admin.net-abuse.usenet" readable for the first time in years).

As a result, I am only seeing his articles quoted (just as with "Cass", who, with all his changing forged usernames, was my motivation to block at the news server, after discovering that nobody else here was using it, nor anybody in any of the other newsgroups which I follow.)

P.P.S. Adding "OT" to a subject line which does not have it (or typing it in the middle of an article, such as I have several times in this followup, is a real pain for me, because I have taught my editor to automatically correct common typos of mine (which include transposing the 't' and the 'o' in the word "to", so every time I try to type that marker, I wind up with "To" instead, and have to go back and change it in such a way that it does not consider it a freshly-typed bit of text. :-)

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Agreed.

[ ... ]

Another thing that I just remembered that is a problem. The format which you used just above, with two letters followed by a ':' is apparently being treated as yet another form of "Re: " by some (Windows-based) newsreaders, and is being automatically stripped off (when at the beginning of the "Subject: " header, just prior to the newreader putting in its own "Re: ". (This is normally good, as it prevents something like:

Subjet: Re: Re: RE: Re: Whatever this was

Which used to be fairly common.

So, the flag, if typed at the beginning with only a ':' following it before the man subject information, will vanish when many people reply to it -- without their intending it. I would suggest that you instead make it:

"Subject: (OT) Whatever the subject really is"

so the flag will not be stripped off by some of the newsreaders. I just had to add it back to this one, as the prior reply had stripped it off. (Did it have the flag at the beginning of the thread? -- Let's see:) The first five in the thread who

======================================================================

566030:Subject: OT: for all the off topic complainers 566051:Subject: Re: for all the off topic complainers 566068:Subject: Re: for all the off topic complainers 566083:Subject: Re: OT for all the off topic complainers 566094:Subject: Re: OT: for all the off topic complainers ======================================================================

Two of the four followups managed to stripp off the original flag. One of the remaining ones kept the flag, but lost the ':'.

Of the two which stripped it off, the first was posted by:

And the second by:

So -- the most common thing acting as a newsreader on the newsgroup is stripping it off it if has the ':'. A very good argument for avoiding that particular format.

And the one which stripped off the ':' was being run by the originator of this thread -- Scott Moore (And looking at the body, he actually simply added it back in, without the ':'

Of course, in any other position other than the beginning of the "Subject: " header, it will (probably) be safe enough, but at the beginning, and with a ':', it is seriously endangered.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

So -- *please* some other format, such as "(OT)", which won't trigger that particular bug/feature in OE? I've found two examples of it in just this thread so far.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

On Sat, 06 Nov 2004 22:10:06 GMT, Scott Moore vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

I use Free Agent's Ignore key on a thread by thread basis. It then does not keep showing me a new heaader every time there is a reply to that thread. This overcomes what Don talked about with the ":" thing.

In the end I spend maybe 30 seconds a day removing unwanted threads, and get exactly what I want. shrug

But they _want_ to be read. Why would they listen?

***************************************************** Dogs are better than people.

People are better than dogs for only one purpose. And then it's only half of ofthe people. And _then_ most of them are only ordinary anyway. And then they have a headache.........

Reply to
Old Nick

Scott Moore wrote in news:1Zbjd.473006$mD.173428 @attbi_s02:

Oh, Fuck that. Tell it up straight.

Just plonk everyone that posts the same ole BS rhetoric.

It's very easy.

Bing

Reply to
Bing

They're called 'subject tags', and the 'standard' method is to use brackets. E.g. [OT].

The Usenet Newbie Project;

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(somebody might wish to re-post this for DoN's reference since he kill files all us obnoxious losers and twits who post from Altopia, thanks )

Reply to
Black Dragon

I frequently check rec.boats (which has been, for all practical intents and purposes, destroyed by off topic and political postings)... and my responses on this matter address what I have seen transpire there....

This won't work, because they *want* you to read their drivel. This

*in your face* invective is what brings them to the keyboard. It is the rare prolific off topic poster that will warn you that they are *doing their thing*.

Oh, they know alright... it just spoils their fun. Some of the most candid of the rec.boats off topic posters freely have admitted they had no interest in going to that newsgroup and discussing *anything* ON TOPIC.

It relies on the off topic people to police themselves... sorry, been there, seen that.... it won't be allowed to work.

For any of you people that actually want this to work do NOT use OT:... you must use something like (OT) or outlook will delete it and you'll be back where you started...

Since this is the *other* newsgroup that I frequently read, I'll make posters here the same offer I made to rec.boats....

I have a small news server that filters out unwanted political crap. It isn't fool proof and does require some hands-on deleting, so not

*every* naughty post is removed immediately, but if you'd like an alternative, go to:

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and see what you think.

PS.. It isn't commercial, I don't log anything, I don't use cookies, and you remain as anonymous as your newsreader allows you. It is text only, covers just a few groups... none of which are binary. Anyone may read, but you must use a password to post, since I need some kind of control on misuse and bandwidth consumption.

Reply to
Gene Kearns

Reply to
Kathy

Best is to dump Outlaw and install Mozilla. Your system will be _much_ safer.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Edwards

You noobs still haven't told me how it's possible that my system is clean.

Tim

-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @

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Reply to
Tim Williams

Why bother? All you want is an argument.

Steve

Tim Williams wrote:

Reply to
Steve Smith

Of course -- but I don't hold out much hope of that ever happening. Microsoft likes to make its *own* standards, and to h*ll with everybody else.

Since we're stuck with OE as the majority newsreader here, and we want the OT marking to *work*, that means that we have to work around OE's deficiencies. (And I don't know how many others may also be similarly broken. My guess is that it is to work around the fact that some systems apply a "RE:" equivalent in other languages, and this particular trick will catch all of the ones which use a two-character version, without having to embed a table to catch all of the *current* ones.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols
[ ... ]

I doubt it. I suspect that is hard-coded in the program, and the chances of getting hold of the source code to a Microsoft program are pretty slim. :-)

I don't use it (or even Microsoft OSs) for newsreading or e-mail, and would not trust OE with the task in today's climate of virii if I *did* use their OSs.

Someone is welcome to try the search, but:

1) I doubt that you would find the fix out there anywhere.

2) Even if you did, what are the odds that you could get *everyone* in the newsgroup to apply the fix -- including new members just coming in.

Far better to use a format which will not cause problems with this bug (eliminate the ':' a the end of the "OT", or put it in brackets or parens, or put it at the end.

Or -- if you can find a way to ban OE from the newsgroups, I would not be at all unhappy. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Hey...I'm not the one knocking functional software...

Tim

-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @

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Reply to
Tim Williams

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