Hey again folks -
OKAY, GUYS! Many of us here have at one time or another,
maybe two or three times in fact, tried to do his best
to minimize the impact of the TROLL on the ARBR
experience, either for himself or for the group as a
whole. This may be as good a time as we're ever going to
have, so let's - for the next two weeks or so - try it
ALL TOGETHER NOW as a carefully coordinated group
effort. Maybe instead of starting another obscure forum,
we can make this one more useful.
I think it's safe to say that most of the people who post
or peek in on ARBR agree that this TROLL is our major
problem, and that without him, most of us could get along
quite nicely and this group may have a chance to be worth
clicking into.
DECLARATION: IT'S OUR NEWSGROUP, DAMMIT, NOT THE TROLL'S!
SUGGESTION: Let's ALL (the real, nice people who honestly
do want the newsgroup to work) make a concerted effort to
use the forum just as if it wasn't preyed upon by the
ogre for a short trial period. If we can work together
within a serious, coordinated system, maybe we can make
it practical to enjoy the forum in spite of the TROLL.
Let's try these techniques suggested by Curtis (and
dozens of others over the last few years) to see if it
does make the newsgroup a bit more pleasant and somewhat
more practical. Let's ALL follow the guidelines below
thru the rest of this month (January 2007) and see - real
world - how effective they really are at providing a bit
of insulation from our worst annoyance.
READING THE NEWSGROUP:
Should be fairly simple.
IF YOU USE A NEWSREADER:
Killfile, filter or do whatever it takes to eliminate
all messages from or mention of the TROLL. If you need
help, ask for it in this thread or by emailing any
'volunteers' off-group. You may also find it advisable
to suppress its muttonheaded minion (or mutant Mini-Me,
maybe?) 'nget' aka 'Mike the Barker'. Since the former
often posts via Cycling Forums (which assigns a kind of
coded variable email address), you may need a trick,
which one of our newsreader gurus (not me!) may also be
able to provide.
IF YOU USE A WEB BROWSER:
Make a concerted effort to mentally tune out and ignore
the TROLL's posts on the website you've been using for
access; don't go into the threads he starts, and skip
over his posts to other threads. If that's too annoying,
use another gateway and archive that filters him out.
Contrary to claims by the idiot itself, there are several
alternatives to Google Groups (the most common web-based
Usenet interface). You may prefer to use (TROLL-free!)
Cycling Forum webpages, to read the group:
http://www.cyclingforums.com/f167-alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent.html
[If that long line gets ginked, just go to their homepage,
then to their own (in-house) recumbent forum, and click
on the link near the top for real ARBR content.] Bookmark
it when you get it. It isn't necessary to join in order
to view messages posted there from ARBR, only to post via
their gateway.
FOR POSTING (EVERYONE!):
1. DO IT - THIS MONTH! As way too many folks have noted,
one thing ARBR desperately needs is pertinent content.
Post a message here, even if it's cross-posted at BROL.
Ask a friend to post at ARBR. I'll follow this up by
starting a legitimate on-topic thread. YOU'RE NEXT! If
you can think of any interesting subject to discuss,
please post it this month.
2. REPLY TO ON-TOPIC THREADS - If you have something to
say, say it. But please don't copy the entire content of
previous posts, ESPECIALLY if they contain off-topic
rambling, if there is any reference to the TROLL or if
any of its content is included, even if it seems to be
on-topic, and even if you don't reply to it. The goal is
to have a worthwhile discussion with ZERO input from the
dreadful dimwit.
3. STAY ON TOPIC - Talk about 'bents, not the TROLL, not
the newsgroup, and not the anonymous profane SPAMMER who
has been off and on lately. Don't reply to any off-topic
threads, or off-topic content in valid threads. Don't
quote, repeat or include links to off-topic content, and
don't comment about it. Mostly: DON'T FEED THE TROLL!
What it says about you doesn't matter; just do your
dead-level best to ignore its insults, its challenges,
its taunts and its questions. For two weeks or so,
please, everyone, just do your best to pretend the TROLL
simply doesn't exist.
4. ISOLATE OFF-TOPIC CONTENT - If at the last ditch, you
simply cannot refrain from off-topic content, put it in
this thread if it's relevant to this specific effort, or
if it's not, in the failsafe backup clearly labeled off-
topic 'DON'T FEED THE TROLL!' thread. Don't worry about
continuity; you can cut and paste anything to which
you're replying from its original location and indicate
quotes by using a right-pointing carat ('greater than'
symbol), allocated to its original poster in text as
needed. Even if you're relatively non-net-savvy, don't
sweat it; just take your best shot at formatting whatever
you have to say, without worrying about who's offended
or amused by your style.
5. DON'T SNIPE OR EVEN GIVE ADVICE PUBLICLY TO OTHER
POSTERS WHO SCREW UP - If you feel the need to ping
another poster because he's done something that you
feel is counterproductive, he's made a grammatical
error or whatever, do it privately rather than by
posting to the whole group. Part of the character of
a good open forum is active, robust disagreement on
pertinent topics, so that's good; please just don't
get off into style or personality differences.
And baduh-baduh-baduh... THAT'S ALL, FOLKS! Please
print this out if it helps as a reminder. Email me
privately if there's any way I can help, or even if
you simply feel a strong urge to ream me out about
this or anything - except the poetry of course. ;-)
Regards,
Wayne