Trolls, Loons and s.a.a.

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. Maybe as bad as it has been at any time since 1996
(Hale Bopp time). Worse, maybe than the Planet X days. It doesn't matter that
most of the idiocy and noise is due to several crossposting individuals. It's
bad. And I further realize that there's only one way to stop/reduce it, and
that is to NOT post to any of these threads _no matter what_. I've been overly
guilty of that myself, lately, maybe out of frustration. 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.

Shawn: I think you care about s.a.a., if only as a place to garner outraged
reactions. So I don't think you want it to lapse into the sad state of affairs
that afflicts the parent newsgroup, sci. astro. So, that in mind, how about
_you_ pledging to stop your trolling--at least for now--until we're out of the
woods vis-a-vis the current nutcases? Do I think you'll agree? Not really. But
you _have_ surprised me in the past. ;-)




Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

On 15 Feb 2004 17:51:53 GMT, (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. Maybe as bad as it has been at any time since 1996
(Hale Bopp time). Worse, maybe than the Planet X days. It doesn't matter that
most of the idiocy and noise is due to several crossposting individuals. It's
bad. And I further realize that there's only one way to stop/reduce it, and
that is to NOT post to any of these threads _no matter what_. I've been overly
guilty of that myself, lately, maybe out of frustration. 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.

I'm with ya Rod - only replies to on-topic threads for me and no more
letting the loons get under my skin. I've been kill-filing a bunch of
threads and goofs, so I'm only seeing a portion of the silly threads
now.

Cheers,

- Craig

On 15 Feb 2004 17:51:53 GMT, (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. Maybe as bad as it has been at any time since 1996
(Hale Bopp time). Worse, maybe than the Planet X days. It doesn't matter that
most of the idiocy and noise is due to several crossposting individuals. It's
bad. And I further realize that there's only one way to stop/reduce it, and
that is to NOT post to any of these threads _no matter what_. I've been overly
guilty of that myself, lately, maybe out of frustration. 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.

I'm with ya Rod - only replies to on-topic threads for me and no more
letting the loons get under my skin. I've been kill-filing a bunch of
threads and goofs, so I'm only seeing a portion of the silly threads
now.

Cheers,

- Craig

"Rod Mollise" wrote in message
...
Hello Friends:

It may be prudent to only reply to real topics of astronomy. There are many
posts here that are quasi-astronomical
and posted by people who have no real immersion in astronomy but sort of
"dabble" in it. The content and quality of
posts are a good indicator of this as is the constant barrage of meaningless
names. The subject is always a good indicator
of what is in the post too. The message rules file isn't big enough to
handle so many names either.

"Rod Mollise" wrote in message
...
Hello Friends:

It may be prudent to only reply to real topics of astronomy. There are many
posts here that are quasi-astronomical
and posted by people who have no real immersion in astronomy but sort of
"dabble" in it. The content and quality of
posts are a good indicator of this as is the constant barrage of meaningless
names. The subject is always a good indicator
of what is in the post too. The message rules file isn't big enough to
handle so many names either.

"Rod Mollise" wrote in message
...
Hello Friends:


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.

"Rod Mollise" wrote in message
...
Hello Friends:


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.

I'm sure I'll occasionally get drawn into a troll before I recognize it
as such, but I'll do my best to avoid responding too. SAA IS ONE OF THE
BEST GROUPS AROUND, AND IT'S WELL WORTH SAVING!
A scientifically oriented group is easy to troll. Most of the
regular contributors are accustomed to dealing with cold, hard, data,
and aren't geared to sorting out lies and trickery. Mother Nature can
be mercilessly confusing, but she always plays fair.
Aside from the expected political rants and crank Mars theories
expected at such times as this, the trolls have been going absolutely
nuts in here lately. Danny Min has been posting an incredible volume on
a number of subjects, and Shawn has been showing up gleefully behind a
number of names and openly crowing about it. Two or three otherwise
valued regulars can't seem to stop themselves from twisting threads to
make a political point.
I enjoy the often off topic small talk between astronomically
oriented friends as much, and often more, than many of the regulars in
here, and some would consider me as part of the problem. I have other
interests that often overlap with amateur astronomy, and I treasure a
good laugh. I think it would be a loss to see the group policed to the
extent that all casual banter disappears. But cripes, we've gotta take
this group back. IGNORE THE TROLLS!!!
Marty

I'm sure I'll occasionally get drawn into a troll before I recognize it
as such, but I'll do my best to avoid responding too. SAA IS ONE OF THE
BEST GROUPS AROUND, AND IT'S WELL WORTH SAVING!
A scientifically oriented group is easy to troll. Most of the
regular contributors are accustomed to dealing with cold, hard, data,
and aren't geared to sorting out lies and trickery. Mother Nature can
be mercilessly confusing, but she always plays fair.
Aside from the expected political rants and crank Mars theories
expected at such times as this, the trolls have been going absolutely
nuts in here lately. Danny Min has been posting an incredible volume on
a number of subjects, and Shawn has been showing up gleefully behind a
number of names and openly crowing about it. Two or three otherwise
valued regulars can't seem to stop themselves from twisting threads to
make a political point.
I enjoy the often off topic small talk between astronomically
oriented friends as much, and often more, than many of the regulars in
here, and some would consider me as part of the problem. I have other
interests that often overlap with amateur astronomy, and I treasure a
good laugh. I think it would be a loss to see the group policed to the
extent that all casual banter disappears. But cripes, we've gotta take
this group back. IGNORE THE TROLLS!!!
Marty

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

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