It seems like this group is the catch all for all the loose cannons and soap
box preachers,
along with the usual NUTZ. However, you are not completely powerless, I've
set filters
in my mail / news reader to eliminate 'most' of the seemingly never ending
'news' posts and,
and off topic chatter which is always posted by the same ****-stains. You
can filter specific
'senders' ( I have about 20 or so filtered ) and you can filter specific
words in the heading.
( 'OT ' being my favorite ( off topic ) ). As more people do this, and quit
feeding the trolls
the 'fun' of these worthless posts will diminish, and hopefully they will
find some other group
to 'invade'. HANG in there, there are solutions. Speaking UP as you put it,
only adds to the
'thrill' of receiving a responce to their worthless posts and encourages
them to continue.
Filtering / blocking is a valuable tool to keep the amout of posts, to a
useable level.


"JeroenK" wrote in message
...
Hey All,

I know I'm not contributing that much to this group, nevertheless I'd
like to say I'm very close to giving up on this group and moving on to
other places that cost me less time to wade through to find the few
worthwhile posts.

Its no fun spending this amount of time to wade through and be left with
less then 5% or so posts actually worth reading.

I'm surprised not many others speak up. Maybe they already left long
ago. Also because of the political and propaganda posts that fill up
this group.

Anyway, just wanted to say before I just silently go away. Maybe it
helps, maybe not

Have a good day all,

--
JeroenK

When you get there,tell her old Hansom Larry (that's me) Loves her.
cuhulin,Larry

After reading your post and all the responses to date, I have to say that I
was also very close to giving up on this NG due to all the off-topic crap.
I even posted a coupla rants about it until I realized *they* were
off-topic! : } I agree with everyone else that said filtering is the
answer; I have set up several filters for this NG & it weeds out most of the
crap, I then ignore the posts with subjects unrelated to SWL, and all posts
by *certain" posters (especially the back-woodsy types).

As a responder to your post mentioned, a moderated NG may be the answer. I
have offered in the past & repeat now, I would be willing to act as a
moderator in a new *moderated* NG for SWL.

Perhaps something like what the author of SWLog is trying to set up (damn
spammers!) would be the way to go; set up a bulletin board on a hosted site,
or blog, and only allow registered users to post, then blackball 'em on
their first off-topic post. He hasn't quite found a fool-proof solution
yet, mainly because fools are so damned ingenious, but I am confident there
is a solution.

The one thing most people tend to forget, even the good guys, is that this
NG (and all NG's, for that matter) is supposed to be for a *specific topic*,
and ANYTHING else is simply off-topic, there really is no gray area! If you
absolutely MUST make a comment about something other than SWL, find a
relevant NG & post it there. common sense really.

Looking forward to the days when we have a moderated NG to discuss SWL & SWL
only! : } (I am in other NG's to discuss/post/rant-rave on other topics)

My calendar: http://calendar.yahoo.com/public/earlwphillipsjr
"JeroenK" wrote in message
...
Hey All,

I know I'm not contributing that much to this group, nevertheless I'd
like to say I'm very close to giving up on this group and moving on to
other places that cost me less time to wade through to find the few
worthwhile posts.

Its no fun spending this amount of time to wade through and be left with
less then 5% or so posts actually worth reading.

I'm surprised not many others speak up. Maybe they already left long
ago. Also because of the political and propaganda posts that fill up
this group.

Anyway, just wanted to say before I just silently go away. Maybe it
helps, maybe not

Have a good day all,

--
JeroenK

On Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:27:10 +0100, JeroenK wrote:

Al Arduengo schreef:

Don't give up. I make good use of my filtering system. If you use a
decent newsreader (Thunderbird is "ok"), you can keep yourself from ever
seeing 80% of the crap, while not missing 99% of the worthwhile stuff.

I'm using SpamPal for my regular email filtering, as I found
Thunderbirds' heuristic system giving me too many false positives. I'm
unaware though if SpamPal can be used for Usenet also.

I think it would be hard to shift the worthwhile posts from these
threads from the useful ones though. Same posters, normal English, etc.
Although I'm sure it will help with the spam.

If you need help with the filter set up, let me know. I would be glad to
assist.


I have been unable to find a setting for newsgroups only filtering.
Closest I found was "local folders". Otherwise I'm using separate
accounts for all my email accounts, so "local folders" is completely idle.

Unfortunately Thunderbird (aka Mozilla mail, Netscape mail) do not
offer very sophisticated USENET capabilities. Regular expressions are
your friend. My filters look for lots of specific words in the
subject, certain authors, and cross posting. In regexp form, a
subject and author search would be perhaps:

if subject contains "terror|bush|clinton|iraq|MI5", set score = -9999,
never expire

if author contains "hd radio|cuhulin", set score = -9999, never expire

Sure, this might filter out a rare post about Iraq radio, or some such
thing, but most of the time, it works well.

You get the idea. If you use windows, I might suggest Gravity or Pan.
Pan is my reader of choice in Linux and Windows.

Cheers.
-Al



If you have any tips, they're welcome! I wonder though how useful it is
as some of the posters in these flamewars also make useful posts in the
same type of English. I'm really curious whether heuristics will help
there... But I love to be proven wrong on this one

Nawwwww,,,, I better not say that one either,,,,,,,
cuhulin

Zack,,, you was almostttttt persuadedddd,,,,, huh?
cuhulin

Zack,,, Bull ****!!!!!!!
cuhulin

That married Irish woman wayyyyy over yonder across the big pond,,,, she
is always buying new clothes and stuff.One time when she bought some new
fish net,,, she got home with it and she looked it over,,, one of the
fish net leggy thangys was ripped and torn.
cuhulin

On Mar 21, 6:47�pm, "Paul Zak" wrote:
After reading your post and all the responses to date, I have to say that I
was also very close to giving up on this NG due to all the off-topic crap.
I even posted a coupla rants about it until I realized *they* were
off-topic! *: } *I agree with everyone else that said filtering is the
answer; I have set up several filters for this NG & it weeds out most of the
crap, I then ignore the posts with subjects unrelated to SWL, and all posts
by *certain" posters (especially the back-woodsy types).

As a responder to your post mentioned, a moderated NG may be the answer. *I
have offered in the past & repeat now, I would be willing to act as a
moderator in a new **moderated* NG for SWL.

Perhaps something like what the author of SWLog is trying to set up (damn
spammers!) would be the way to go; set up a bulletin board on a hosted site,
or blog, and only allow registered users to post, then blackball 'em on
their first off-topic post. *He hasn't quite found a fool-proof solution
yet, mainly because fools are so damned ingenious, but I am confident there
is a solution.

The one thing most people tend to forget, even the good guys, is that this
NG (and all NG's, for that matter) is supposed to be for a *specific topic*,
and ANYTHING else is simply off-topic, there really is no gray area! *If you
absolutely MUST make a comment about something other than SWL, find a
relevant NG & post it there. *common sense really.

Looking forward to the days when we have a moderated NG to discuss SWL & SWL
only! *: } *(I am in other NG's to discuss/post/rant-rave on other topics)

My calendar:http://calendar.yahoo.com/public/earlwphillipsjr"JeroenK" wrote in message

...



Hey All,

I know I'm not contributing that much to this group, nevertheless I'd
like to say I'm very close to giving up on this group and moving on to
other places that cost me less time to wade through to find the few
worthwhile posts.

Its no fun spending this amount of time to wade through and be left with
less then 5% or so posts actually worth reading.

I'm surprised not many others speak up. Maybe they already left long
ago. Also because of the political and propaganda posts that fill up
this group.

Anyway, just wanted to say before I just silently go away. Maybe it
helps, maybe not

Have a good day all,

--
JeroenK- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Those days are long-gone ! BooHoo ! WAAWAA ! Complain, complain,
complain !

On Mar 21, 7:15�pm, Al Arduengo wrote:
On Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:27:10 +0100, JeroenK wrote:
Al Arduengo schreef:

Don't give up. *I make good use of my filtering system. *If you use a
decent newsreader (Thunderbird is "ok"), you can keep yourself from ever
seeing 80% of the crap, while not missing 99% of the worthwhile stuff.

I'm using SpamPal for my regular email filtering, as I found
Thunderbirds' heuristic system giving me too many false positives. I'm
unaware though if SpamPal can be used for Usenet also.

I think it would be hard to shift the worthwhile posts from these
threads from the useful ones though. Same posters, normal English, etc.
Although I'm sure it will help with the spam.

If you need help with the filter set up, let me know. *I would be glad to
assist.

I have been unable to find a setting for newsgroups only filtering.
Closest I found was "local folders". Otherwise I'm using separate
accounts for all my email accounts, so "local folders" is completely idle.

Unfortunately Thunderbird (aka Mozilla mail, Netscape mail) do not
offer very sophisticated USENET capabilities. *Regular expressions are
your friend. *My filters look for lots of specific words in the
subject, certain authors, and cross posting. *In regexp form, a
subject and author search would be perhaps:

if subject contains "terror|bush|clinton|iraq|MI5", set score = -9999,
never expire

if author contains "hd radio|cuhulin", set score = -9999, never expire

Sure, this might filter out a rare post about Iraq radio, or some such
thing, but most of the time, it works well.

You get the idea. *If you use windows, I might suggest Gravity or Pan.
Pan is my reader of choice in Linux and Windows.

Cheers.
-Al





If you have any tips, they're welcome! I wonder though how useful it is
as some of the posters in these flamewars also make useful posts in the
same type of English. I'm really curious whether heuristics will help
there... But I love to be proven wrong on this one - Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Ah, that is too much trouble !