Re: Fed up with "Linux sucks..." type of messages

roodwriter_at_core.com
Date: 04/28/05 

Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 15:30:20 -0400

Wenceslao wrote:

> Go some where else, you stupid M$ fanatics....This is a Linux group,
> anyone who knows what a computer is and who uses it for a bit more than
> using f***ing Dreamweaber and *** like that, know that Linux is far, far
> much more superior tham M$ bull***....

While your feeling is understandable, that's in fact what they're
trying to accomplish. It's like a little kid being bad in a bid for
attention, though in many cases they probably smugly tell themselves
how smart they are for getting a reaction.

It's a long-standing and unsolvable problem on Usenet. I suspect at
least some chronic trolls, not necessarily or just in this group, have
emotional problems and this is one way they get their jollies. I've
unsubscribed from several newsgroups because of the low
signal-to-noise ratio. Too many racists, professional haters, or
political whack-jobs clogging the on-topic messages and making the
headers painful even to read. Legitimate posters stop posting after
awhile, making the problem worse.

While it's annoying, at least no one gets hurt. The best advice is to
ignore them. Don't respond at all. Complaints, insults or abuse are
what they're looking for.

It's one of the many factors--like the mountains of spam--that have
contributed to the decline in popularity of newsgroups. My first
newsgroup experience was when using Windows and AOL. You can't do that
anymore because AOL has dropped newsgroups because too few people were
using them. Too bad.

Of course, I dropped AOL because they didn't have a Linux
version. Their loss. But even if tomorrow AOL announced a new Linux
client, I'd be hard-pressed to sign up. Even with all its problems,
I'm one of the minority who likes getting the nuggets of information
from Usenet.

The trolls, nut cases and, perhaps, even the winds of fashion are
contributing to the decline of Usenet. I suspect some day it'll be
gone entirely.

I'll miss it.

--Rod 

--
Author of "Linux for Non-Geeks--Clear-eyed Answers for Practical Consumers"
and "Boring Stories from Uncle Rod." Both are available at
http://www.rodwriterpublishing.com/index.html.
To reply take the extra "o" out of the name.