On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 20:49:18 -0500, Gene Kearns
wrote:

Many (if not most) of these OT posts are made by non-boaters.

Hard to tell, since there's so little boating content.

They
may *own* a boat, but their boating is never discussed here. One of
the more arrogant of these idiots admitted he came here only as a
vandal and not to discuss boating. He freely admitted that when he
wished to discuss boating he went elsewhere. When he wanted to engage
in mischief, this is where he came.

That got me to thinking. I wonder if there is not a movement afoot
among some (consciously, or not) to attempt to disable rec.boats.

I've come to think it's more a function of people with no sense of
self-restraint or of decorum when it comes to the best interests of the whole.
To my eye, it starts out as a lack of consideration more than anything else.

I
have no real answer for that, but it strengthens my resolve to ignore
these posts and forge on with what we should be discussing here. In
Agent, I just hit the round circle with a diagonal bar through it...
thread is ignored. Whatever you use for a newsreader, I encourage you
to learn about and use its capabilities to ignore inappropriate
threads. In some instances, killfilling a poster may be appropriate,
if they have never made a boating related post... and there are some
of those out there posting, now.

I've been using Agent for a long time. It's great software--but the simplicity
of using killfiles, filters and "ignore thread" is never going to stop people
from reading these threads, even if only in morbid fascination.

At any rate, again, the signal to noise ratio has reached the point
where we are losing posters. I'm betting that if we forced the noise
back down to a whisper, the vandals would slink back to their
respective rocks, crawl under, and be quiet.

Good possibility.

Think about it, the decision is yours.

It is, indeed. Peer pressure can be a powerful thing.

Joe Parsons