I am sure you all have been experiencing the recent onslaught of off
topic postings in the antenna newsgroup. Subjects such as CB, code,
etc. Character assinations, childish BS. What follows is an idea I
have to combat this foolishness. I am dead serious about this. If
you are interested in participating, read on.

It happens when someone initiates a posting and "cross posts" it to
multiple newsgroups including rec.radio.amateur.antenna. They do this
because they think they reach a wider audience, instead of confining
their subject to the appropriate newsgroup (such as, possibly,
rec.radio.amateur.policy). They really aren't too smart and they
don't have any manners or or appreciation of netiquette at all. Then
what happens is someone sees their posting and decides to add their 2
cents worth, and they just use the default list of newsgroups which
was included in the original posting, and voila! their reply also goes
to 6 different newsgroups.

I have an idea to rid us of this littering. Take an off topic
posting, do a reply to it, be sure to edit your posting so that it
DOES NOT appear in the antenna newsgroup. This is vital. In your
reply posting just post a simple one line message, something like "I
agree" or "yeah, right on Dude." Do it as many times as your energy
lasts. (It would not hurt to edit your reply email to some bogus
address so you do not get flames).

Now, when someone in another newsgroup sees the offending thread, they
will begin reading it, and see dozens of useless messages (all those
"I agree, Dude" messages). Remember, these replies are not showing up
in the antenna newsgroup. After someone has read 50 of them they will
get the message. If they choose to do a reply, remember they are not
smart enough to know better, their reply will only go to the
newsgroups which you have left in place.

Ok? Agree? Pick the next crap, off topic posting you see and fire
away, along with me.

Rick K2XT