Very close to giving up ...
 

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

Very close to giving up ...
 

JeroenK wrote:
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

I hope you'll stick it out a little longer. Every group goes through
phases, and while I agree that we're in the middle of a fairly bad
phase right now, things might get better. Your frustration is
perfectly understandable though. Like you, I don't care for all the
political posts that appear here, and we've been inundated by spam
posts about IBOC for the past several weeks. Nevertheless I find that
the occasional on-topic post still makes this group worthwhile.

Steve

Very close to giving up ...
 

On Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:14:39 +0100, JeroenK wrote:

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,

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.

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

-Al

Very close to giving up ...
 

On Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:14:39 +0100, JeroenK wrote:

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,

One thing I noticed some years ago, the better the news group, the
more likely it is to attract all manner of riff-raff. Sometimes this
results in a new, moderated group being set up to go back to the
ideal.

At times I certainly contribute to the riff-raff, tho' not as much as
others.

bob
k5qwg

Very close to giving up ...
 

Why don't you block those people who post subjects your not interested in
that way you'll only see those posts that you want to read?

"Steve" wrote in message
oups.com...

JeroenK wrote:
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

I hope you'll stick it out a little longer. Every group goes through
phases, and while I agree that we're in the middle of a fairly bad
phase right now, things might get better. Your frustration is
perfectly understandable though. Like you, I don't care for all the
political posts that appear here, and we've been inundated by spam
posts about IBOC for the past several weeks. Nevertheless I find that
the occasional on-topic post still makes this group worthwhile.

Steve

Very close to giving up ...
 

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.

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 ;)

--
JeroenK

Very close to giving up ...
 

Rejected schreef:
Why don't you block those people who post subjects your not interested in
that way you'll only see those posts that you want to read?

Because occasionally they make worthwhile posts as well. And spending X
amount of time adding/editing filters is not that much different from
wading through the offtopic junk IMO.

--
JeroenK

Very close to giving up ...
 

JeroenK ) writes:


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.

One of the things that happens often when someone speaks up, others
who aren't doing the damage actually speak in favor of the off-topic junk.
So at the very least someone will say "live with it" and then others will
say "oh it's not too bad". And then some time later, the junk has gotten
worse because the people who did speak up at the beginning felt they had
no support, and by that time the junk has built on the junk ("hey, he posted
some off-topic stuff, that means I can too") and it's no longer a matter of
stomping on the rare off-topic post, but requires a massive effort.

And yes, it's not so much that the off-topic junk pushes the on-topic stuff
out, it's just that with so much junk, and that includes the village idiot
"Cullin", there is less appeal to pay attention, so the on-topic posts
get lost. ANd when the on-topic posts get less notice than the off-topic,
the newsgroup declines.

Michael

Very close to giving up ...
 

"Rejected" ) writes:
Why don't you block those people who post subjects your not interested in
that way you'll only see those posts that you want to read?

That's a copout, and something someone always says when this sort of thing
comes up.

Why should we have to put up with litterers?

Michael

Very close to giving up ...
 

On Mar 21, 11:14?am, JeroenK wrote:
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

Baby !