Death of a group?

While not usenet there are a few around that have the benefit of file attachments (Banquers Bane = supporting claims with data sets) to help sort out problems. All of them in various states of idleness. None of them are going to kick you out for having a lively discussion.

eng-tips mcadcentral sean's autodesk shill shack (mcadforums) etc.

I don't like blogs. I don't think any one person can keep one going for long with new, fresh and pertinent material. This means wading through a bunch of them with the obligatory signup for each one to find something or just to be a part. I'll read them if there is something of interest but not as a rule. They are not the kind of thing you can watch out of the corner of your eye during the day.

I don't like the SW forums because of their pigeon holing. The NG allows one to see all the action and chime in if you have something to share and to learn if you don't The learning part is missing from the forum format. They can be good on the odd chance that a SW person is lurking and willing to chime in and they are sometimes good for getting a specific answer. SW may have purposely setup the forums to drain people off from here but that is supposition.

Eng-Tips is just OK because the format is treeless and harder to search and browse, but I do like it's user moderated format. There are also a bunch of tech support people that hang there because they can't get enough at work. And because it is a for profit endeavor some things of general interest to SW folks can't be done there like UG notifications.

SWCAD at google groups suits me fine. That is the other place I lurk because it not only has the plusses of the NG but it works with email. I can set my email filter to "ring" me if someone posts so it is argueably the quickest place to get an answer if an answer is to be had.

But the NG has one big advantage, it is archived; there is history. Can't do that with email or some of the other formats. The NG can be searched, filtered, kill-filed and handled in other flexible ways. It is concise and totally open. That is also it's biggest weakness because it takes a commitment to not do the bad behaviour on a purely voluntary basis and is therefore a window into the dark soul of man (and women).

Anyway, I posted a link on Netiquette, a discussion that hasn't happened here in a long time.

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Well put all around - thanks.

WT

Last-modified: 2003-10-04 (revision 1.14) Posted-by: postfaq 1.15 (Perl 5.10.0) Archive-name: net-abuse-faq/newsgroups URL:

We have a plentiful selection of newsgroups about network abuse and related issues, but what is the best one to use? Here are excerpts from the newsgroups' charters, with emphasis added to help make things clear. Please refer to the full charters, URLs included here when available, if you would like more detail.

If you want to learn more about network abuse -- what it is, what can be done about it and just what all those acronyms mean -- Tim Skirvin has pointers to more sources of information at:

Thank you for following these recommendations. It will make these newsgroups more useful for all involved.

Network Abuse Newsgroups:

news.admin.net-abuse.blocklisting (moderated) "News.admin.net-abuse.blocklisting is a newsgroup devoted to discussion of subjects related to the USE, ADMINISTRATION, AND EFFECTS OF BLOCKLISTS in ameliorating the problem of unsolicited bulk email and other unwanted or abusive network traffic. Any topic which is especially of interest to those maintaining, using, or affected by blocklists is welcome in this group."

news.admin.net-abuse.bulletins (moderated) "News.admin.net-abuse.bulletins is a moderated forum for BULLETINS OF ACTION TAKEN AGAINST NET ABUSE. Appropriate subjects include cancellation notices (EMP/ECP, spew, binary, and others), status reports from individual systems concerning action taken against abusers, results of tracking campaigns, "rogue site" declarations, and the like." You brought down a spammer? This is the place to report it.

news.admin.net-abuse.sightings (robomoderated) "News.admin.net-abuse.sightings is a forum for REPORTS OF SIGHTINGS OF NET ABUSE. It is a robomoderated forum, allowing only properly formatted posts. Followups are required to be set strictly out of the group and into the appropriate group in the news.admin.net-abuse.* hierachy."

news.admin.net-abuse.policy (robomoderated) "News.admin.net-abuse.policy is a moderated forum for DISCUSSION OF POLICY and site-management issues related to net abuse. Possible topics include Acceptable Use Policies, what actions should be taken against abusers, discussion of third-party cancel messages, possible actions against abusive sites such as rogue site declarations, discussion of what is and is not net abuse, and so forth." Crossposting is not allowed here, and the subject must contain some sort of topic tag.

news.admin.net-abuse.email "News.admin.net-abuse.email is a forum for DISCUSSION OF POSSIBLE ABUSES OF E-MAIL. Possible topics include mailbombing, denial-of-service attacks, "listserv bombs", unsolicited and/or unwanted mail, email address lists, mailing list abuse, large-scale mailings in general, chain letters, "email viruses" such as Good Times, filtering software such as procmail, and so forth. Flames and other personal attacks received through email are not on-topic, unless they are related to another form of abuse." Please DO NOT post reports and sightings here.

news.admin.net-abuse.usenet "News.admin.net-abuse.usenet is a forum for DISCUSSION OF POSSIBLE ABUSES OF USENET (as defined in news.announce.newusers). Possible topics include spamming or Excessive Multi-Posting (EMP), Excessive Cross-Posting (ECP), Usenet chain letters such as MAKE.MONEY.FAST, forged or third-party cancellations, broken Usenet gateways, forgery of another user, forged approvals in moderated groups, massively crossposted "flametrolls", abuse of the newsgroup creation system, general purpose netiquette, and so forth." Please DO NOT post reports and sightings here.

news.admin.net-abuse.misc "News.admin.net-abuse.misc is a forum for DISCUSSION of possible net abuse NOT COVERED BY THE REST OF THE NEWS.ADMIN.NET-ABUSE.* HIERARCHY. Possible topics include ping-storming, site aliasing, denial of service attacks, and anything else that DOES NOT FIT INTO THE OTHER FORUMS in the news.admin.net-abuse.* hierarchy." Please DO NOT post reports and sightings here.

Related Newsgroups:

alt.spam A less widely used newsgroup, this newsgroup can also be somewhat more friendly, or at least less confrontational, and is at least lower traffic. Some posters may find it an easier place to have a conversation about what to do about spam than the network abuse newsgroups.

news.admin.censorship This is a forum for discussion of all aspects of censorship and free speech issues relating to news administration/Usenet from all sources, specifically including the government, system and news adminstrators and other users. This newsgroup is intended for discussing censorship issues directly related to netnews, although more general censorship topics do tend to appear.

misc.legal.computing This group is for the discussion of legal aspects of computers, or places where computers or computer users bump into the law, such as electronic communications privacy laws; anti-trust; monopolies; license agreements; look and feel copyrights; Secret Service; BBS raids; and anything else remotely related.--

John R. Carroll

What can I say?

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Almost forgot