Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!convex!news From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) Newsgroups: alt.sources.d Subject: Re: Moderation of alt.sources through Mass Admonition Message-ID: <1991Mar12.002807.8164@convex.com> Date: 12 Mar 91 00:28:07 GMT References: <1991Mar9.022240.27214@wolves.uucp> <1991Mar11.162930.8008@convex.com> Sender: news@convex.com (news access account) Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX Lines: 32 Nntp-Posting-Host: pixel.convex.com From the keyboard of emv@ox.com (Ed Vielmetti): :In article <1991Mar11.162930.8008@convex.com> tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen) writes: : : At the request of someone in email, I'm posting my rn magic for : sending someone an automatic message gently chiding them for : their misplaced posting into alt.sources. : : I think that this is a mistake. : : Much better would be to put more sources in alt.sources, so that : people learn by example what to expect there, and don't mistakenly ask : questions. For instance, if you see sources in some other group, : repost them into alt.sources. Or post something of your own! It doesn't work to post sources. Sources get posted. People don't figure it out. : Auto-hassling scripts strike me as an unnecessary annoyance likely to : cause animosity. better would be to either ignore the posting : completely , or answer the request by mail as best you can and gently : chide the user into changing their ways. I used to ignore them. I became annoyed, because it didn't get better. In fact, it got worse. The solution to the annoyance was to send them mail. After sending a dozen and a half of these personal responses last week, and receiving positive feedback from all but one, I boiled what I was saying down into one message, and posted the result. What's so annoying about that? --tom