On Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:09:40 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
big snip

I told one good guy who *is* worth talking to, in e-mail a week or so ago,
that if there's one more lost sane soul on RCM, I'm gone. If that comes to
pass, no one will be left to care, anyway. That's a win-win.


Well, Ed, I for one hope the group doesn't totally dissolve.

I doubt if it will, Karl. But I wonder who will be left, and what there will
be to read except for exercises in extreme insults.


I don't talk here much, but do listen, and enjoy the education I get
along the way. Learning both from people who think but don't question
and those who habitually ask good questions and demand first
references for statements.

Maybe we can convince some of the survivalist types that returning to
dialup bulletin boards is the safest way to protect their precious
communication links.

You'd better talk to Cliff. I've tried but to no avail. Since Gunner gave up
(largely, but not completely) his multi-NG provocative posts, Cliff has
picked up the banner and outstripped what Gunner was doing by a mile. He's
single-handedly turned the place into an open sewer, IMO. Oh, and TMT
appears to be doing the same thing now, although I don't see his posts. The
replies are enough to make you puke. Fortunately, those cut-and-paste jobs
of his don't seem to have legs, unlike many of the ones that Cliff posts.

It's easy to wreck a special-interest forum like this. Once you've found a
provocative subject that gets people riled up, just drag in some
professional pricks by cross-posting to the political and other k00k groups
and you'll wind up with insults and counter-insults that infect the whole
place. That's what's happened, and it was, and continues to be, intentional.

I don't know how to appeal to those people to stop it. At this moment the
cross-posting is at a low ebb, and we can see that the NG tends to get back
on track when there isn't all of that noise -- there are some interesting
threads going on. I'd like to see it continue that way, but some people
apparently do not.

Check the title of this newsgroup. Once the regulars allowed
discussion to stray from the topic even slightly (the "virtual coffee
shop" justification), it was predictably impossible to limit what
should be talked about. Gummer was the worst and he and his pals begat
cliff and tmt. The side effect is that some folks won't answer
questions from those who've overexposed their idiotic opinions. I
can't speak for others, but I for damned sure am not going to waste a
minute helping people who are in favor of hanging others for perceived
and ridiculously over-generalized politic views. Over the years
several people complained about off-topic posts and were shown the
door by a whole bunch of the regulars. So I gave up complaining a long
time ago. The group is what it is, and I've even grown to like the
Usenet version of the Springer Show. :-) But if the regulars wanted
to turn the newsgroup into what it was designed to be, then all they
need to do is 1. Quit starting off-topic threads. If it's not metal
related, then take it somewhere else. 2. Quit responding to off-topic
posts no matter who they're from. But neither is going to happen.

Wayne