Tom Watson wrote:
I received a communication from a WreckFriend of mine today.

A thinking man, a judicious man, a decent wooddorker.

He said that he would no longer be a cohabitant of the Wreck.

This was disturbing to me and I thought to parse its particulars.

He states that the Wreck is lacking in, " both wisdom and wit."

I suppose that I would have to agree, in a general sense.

We are certainly well past the days where Mr. Leach and Mr. Olguin
lent their particular insight into things particular and general on
the WrecK.

I have not seen a post from Mr. Bohn in quite some time.

I have not seen my favorite story teller spin his tales here in a bit.

I read a good deal too much of Mr. Fatheree's political opinions, and
those of Messrs. Hinz, Fredfighter, Miller, etc. - good and worthy
men, I am sure, but not much in the wooddorking department.

I wonder why they post here.


I read this group because of an interest in woodworking. If I start
a thread in this group, I start a woodworking thread. I never start
an off-topic thread. There are plenty enough newsgroups in UseNet
that there simply is no excuse for starting off-topic threads.

So why do others start off-topic threads? Some are cleary started
by trolls who simply want to disrupt the group for fun. Those are
easy enough to spot and explain. I try to limit my replies to trolls
to nothing more than pointing out their posting history or other
troll-sign. No point in engaging them on the issues, that is what
they want.

But what of the others? Well, if you were trying to deceive people
about a woodworking issue would you post your article in a woodworking
newsgroup? I don't think so. Unlike the troll, these OT posters are
hoping their spew will go unchallenged. Well, I go into 'tireless
rebutter mode' and take them on. Clearly that is at least as ugly
to most as what they post. But without a rebuttal, they win the
day. And they won't stop there. Left unchallenged, they will
only get worse, more strident, more frequent, more disrespectful,
and more and more convinced they have a god-given right to act
contrary to social conventions.

Consider this thread:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...2 17fa9ae287a

Somehow, a thread on sawzall blades mutated into a subthread on nuclear
power plant fuel reprocessing. So, Mr Bozarth and myself moved that
subthread to an appropriate newsgroup. Further, after it was moved,
we got some excellent information from new participants. Perhaps
that was becuase we were interested in the truth, not trying to
deceive.

Somehow, that never seems to work with political threads. My guess is
the people who refuse to move the thread to an appropriate newsgroup
simply do not have enough confidence in their opinion to voice it
beofor others who actually are interested in and knowledgible of the
subject.

--

FF