Splitting the group?

alt.machines.cnc is far worse...

Pete C.

And just where is the "OT" designator on THIS off-topic post?

I agree!!! The off-topic posts are just so annoying and so hard to get my mouse pointer past that I also have become a "Victim" and deserve some compensation from somebody so I fully intend to sue everybody starting today for off-topic posts...sorry Don, but you're first. Please forward your lawyer's information so I can get started on my vacation plans. (Just kidding)

Don, why don't you consider starting a NG like:

rec.craft.boring.no-nonsense.just.stuff.I'm.interested.in.only.just.me

The same lunacy comes up on the Wreck quite often. Most folks find it easier to hit the I (Ignore thread) button than split the group and have all the OT posts to read on both/multiple groups.

One of the main reasons I follow rec.metalheads is for the wide variety of cool and unusual punishment I find here. ;)

No change (other than trolls moving on), thanks.

========================================================== CAUTION: Do NOT look directly into laser with remaining eyeball! ==========================================================

Comprehensive Website Design

Don, do you have a newsreader that groups the posts by topic? I am ashamed to say that I use Outlook Express -- I know, not the safest platform -- but it groups all the posts on a given topic under one heading, so if I want to expand it and read I can, or else I can easily go on to other topics.

For me, the newsgroup just wouldn't be the same without all the OT posts -- not that I read as much as 10% of them, but from time to time there is an OT that interests me. Meanwhile, whenever I've asked metal-working questions, I've always gotten on-topic and very helpful answers ...

Andy

Why not make a filter to toss anything starting with OT ?

- - Rex Burkheimer

Tom Gardner wrote:

Actually there is no need to split the group... we just need those people that want to post off topic stuff to do it somewhere else. I don't think anyone comes here looking to hear about someone else political agenda. It is rude to do that.

We had the same problem some years agon in de.comp.sys.mac. We agreed to restructure and added a soc group. Now all (read most) of the OT is going to de.comp.sys.mac.soc.

All I can do now is to filter at the first occurence of OT or completely filter the whole thread if some wellknown persons start it.

I also already know what a few people will answer to my posting. But these have a high risk of beeing permanently filtered. :-)

Ni-feed my filter-ck

The political stuff here has gotta go. Let's get back on topic.........

Been around long?

"Strap" sez:

" No change (other than trolls moving on), thanks."

Second that, Larry. Mercifully, it seems that all trolls move on, eventually. And even out of the posts of some trolls comes a certain wisdom. Some time back, the posts of the idiot (pardon me, the troll) that posted all the drivel re. converting a V-8 engine to run on steam; even had some redeeming value. It generated some great counter posts that contained a good deal of engine design information; all directed at the ridiculousness of the basic premise. Even way OT posts have a way of sometimes running back "on topic" - well, errr, that is on to some other topic that may be loosely related to metal working.

Bob Swinney

Don Stauffer wrote in news:3KkPe.15$nh6.3861 @news.uswest.net:

There is no need in that. You just need to use a filter or three. Plonking a couple of unnamed posters will garner a 90% drop in noise, guaranteed.

Unnamed Posters ? Let's call a spade a spade or Cliff is a d*****ad that should be banned by the Moderator ! I have never seen any of his posts worth looking at or offer and Metal Work Advice. He's a real piece of junk, oh yeah, there you go, he is junk...that's on subject , Junkyards , Metal ,there you go....

Here we go again.....

With my newsreader (which can filter on regex expressions) that's hard to do. The trouble is that different people write "OT" in so many different ways that its impossible to catch them all without occasionally filtering on-topic posts. Consider trying to write a regex expression to only filter the truly OT subject lines that follow:

-OT- Glue head liberals in congress OT Glue head liberals in congress ot Glue head liberals in congress ot-Glue head liberals in congress Other Sources of Metal? Ottman metal shaper info? Off Topic: Glue head liberals in congress Glue head liberals in congress - OT

You get the idea. It was taking my newsreader so long to process all of the filters I had carefully written that every check for new posts was taking what seemed like several minutes to complete (on a

1 ghz PC), and still I was losing on-topic posts occasionally.

I finally gave up and don't bother any more.

Most other groups have rather strict Subject flagging conventions, and for good reason. Usually the flag is enclosed in square brackets at the beginning of the line with a single space after the close-bracket, like:

[OT] Glue head liberals in congress

With consistency in Subject flagging, off-topic posts would be trivially easy to filter out.

Perhaps someone who cannot tolerate off-topic posts here could write up a mini-faq describing the proper format of flagging an OT post, and why, and then post it here on a regular basis. Perhaps the mini-faq could contain instructions for filter writing for various popular newsreaders as well.

[ ... ]

That one would be a good format. The one which is arguably the

*worst* is:

OT: Glue head liberals in congress

because some common newsreader wannabes, Outlook Express as one example, in a misguided attempt to handle not just "Re: " at the start of a subject line, but *all* other language versions as well, just take any two-letter block followed by a ':', and assume that it was "Re:" in

*some* language, and replace it with "Re:". This nicely does away with the flagging on an off-topic thread which was properly labeled up to that point.

It would not do any good, as there are some who refuse to flag OT threads, and others who are convinced that it must look like "OT:", and thus it vanishes.

And very few of us properly even change the "Subject: " header when the topic drifts (I'm as guilty as everyone else), so things which drift from on topic to off topic would still not be flagged.

Enjoy, DoN.

Perhaps -- but this is an unmoderated group, so there *is* no moderator to ban him. (Nor or most usenet newsgroups moderated. Only a very few are.

Enjoy, DoN.