Trolls, Loons and s.a.a.

Rod Mollise wrote:

Hello Friends:

I know I said in an earlier post that s.a.a. will recover from the current
influx of trolls and loons. But, as Jan pointed out to me in a recent email, it
is PRETTY BAD right now.

It looks to me like most of the trolling is coming from Min. He seems
to have struck a chord with his political trolls that he was never able
to get with his astrology. Unfortunately, the root cause seems to be
that there is a new "generation" of people here who just haven't learned
not to respond to the trolls. Several of the top posters to this
newsgroup (many of whom weren't around six months ago) seem to fall for
every off topic prodding.

Two simple rules:

(1) Politics and computer wars are off topic and unwelcome!

(2) DO NOT RESPOND TO MIN or any of his many aliases!

Those of us who have been around for a long time already know this. The
trollers aren't the real problem, it's those people who can't help
responding to them, particularly the ones who seem more interested in
politics than astronomy...

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools Software for the Observer:
http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html

Skyhound Observing Pages:
http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html

To reply remove spleen

Rod Mollise wrote in message:
snip
Be that as it may, I resolve to "pledge" not to respond to trolls
and loons forthwith, and hope the rest of you will join me in said Pledge.

Rod,

Please count me in. Definitely.

Dave Jessie

Rod Mollise wrote in message:
snip
Be that as it may, I resolve to "pledge" not to respond to trolls
and loons forthwith, and hope the rest of you will join me in said Pledge.

Rod,

Please count me in. Definitely.

Dave Jessie

Mike, I have to respectfully disagree, the guy just asked for a good book
about Galileo, certainly some kinda connection between that guy (Galileo)
and s.a.a., wouldn't ya say?
It is funny though how much response some of the more off topic BS receives,
certainly more than it deserves.
BTW, my short time here has shown me that any relevant astronomy or
telescope question is usually answered cordially, knowledgeably, and
quickly...

Mike, I have to respectfully disagree, the guy just asked for a good book
about Galileo, certainly some kinda connection between that guy (Galileo)
and s.a.a., wouldn't ya say?
It is funny though how much response some of the more off topic BS receives,
certainly more than it deserves.
BTW, my short time here has shown me that any relevant astronomy or
telescope question is usually answered cordially, knowledgeably, and
quickly...

Rod Mollise wrote:
and hope the
rest of you will join me in said Pledge.

Hell, I'll sign your pledge.

Steve

Rod Mollise wrote:
and hope the
rest of you will join me in said Pledge.

Hell, I'll sign your pledge.

Steve

On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 18:37:52 GMT, "mikeS" wrote:

Oh and further to my above post, as an example, you responded to "Boatman"
about a book on Galileo of all things.
If the person isn't smart enough to go do a search at the local library or
online, and asks publicly about such an obviously
redundant topic as Galileo, then the person is just wasting your time. So R
Mollise, I suggest you take note because
people like "boatman" with topics like Galileo are minor trolls.

Man, you're harsh! g

I've got to disagree. This is (usually) a friendly forum for people with a
common interest in astronomy, and that includes astronomical history. I'd trust
a review of books about Galileo from members of this group more than I would an
anonymous one from Amazon. I think the question was fair and the responses
justified.

Ignoring massively off topic trolls should be a given. Things get a little less
clear when discussing semitopical matters, like cosmology, or when threads that
started out topical take a tangent. Personally, I don't worry too much about
these latter cases, and will even respond occasionally to fully topical trolls
(like goto wars).

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 18:37:52 GMT, "mikeS" wrote:

Oh and further to my above post, as an example, you responded to "Boatman"
about a book on Galileo of all things.
If the person isn't smart enough to go do a search at the local library or
online, and asks publicly about such an obviously
redundant topic as Galileo, then the person is just wasting your time. So R
Mollise, I suggest you take note because
people like "boatman" with topics like Galileo are minor trolls.

Man, you're harsh! g

I've got to disagree. This is (usually) a friendly forum for people with a
common interest in astronomy, and that includes astronomical history. I'd trust
a review of books about Galileo from members of this group more than I would an
anonymous one from Amazon. I think the question was fair and the responses
justified.

Ignoring massively off topic trolls should be a given. Things get a little less
clear when discussing semitopical matters, like cosmology, or when threads that
started out topical take a tangent. Personally, I don't worry too much about
these latter cases, and will even respond occasionally to fully topical trolls
(like goto wars).

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Rod wrote:

Be that as it may, I
resolve to "pledge" not to respond to trolls and loons forthwith, and hope
the rest of you will join me in said Pledge.

Right on target as usual. For those not familar with "The Pledge" I went
back and looked up the original post where I asked others to "Take the Pledge."
Gareth Slee then picked it up and posted it to the S.A.A. website.

"Date: 2001-05-17 02:45:59 PST

Just a suggestion for dealing with Trolls.

A couple of other newsgroups were plagued by some persistent trolls.

I decided to "Take the Pledge" which means that I pledged to never respond to a
given troll and invited others to do the same.

It seems to work and it does let the troll know that people will not be
responding to their trolling. I think this is good. In one newsgroup, there
is one fellow who occasionally fishes around to try to get me to rise, but I
have avoided it, much to his dismay.

The Pledge goes something like this:

"I, (jon isaacs) do hereby pledge from this moment on, the never reply to
another post by "whoever, a known troll."

"I know that the members of this newsgroup are able to see the foolishness and
wastefulness of these posts and I know that they can do this without my help."

"I also know that if there is no response to such posts, that whoever will
become frustrated and peddle his/her bait somewhere else."

"I therefore ask you to join me in taking this pledge."

Jon Isaacs"