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>Dtrader wrote:
> um. uh.,
> where are the cries to rid this list of the losers with nothing better to
do
> than spout political bullshit on a list intended for trading software and
> market subject?
They're out here. Unfortunately, most of the people screaming them are
probably like me: We've been here long enough to know that it won't do
any good.
You see, this is one of those rare occasions when you really can divide
the world into two kinds of people. In mailing lists, there's an implied
social contract. It reads something like, "I grant you my precious time
and bandwidth, and the benefit of whatever I have to offer about the
subject of our mutual interest, with the understanding that you will give
me the same in return and will not abuse my trust, either by deliberately
misleading me (as, for example, telling me to waste my money buying
some system you know doesn't work) OR BY WASTING SAID TIME
AND BANDWIDTH WITH BS THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH
WHY I MADE THIS DEAL WITH YOU."
The two kinds of people are those who care about this contract,
recognize that it's implicit in their participation in a mailing list, and
are willing at least to try to live up to it, and those who don't.
Call the ones who don't on their abuse of your trust, and they either
accuse you of not knowing your place or go all self-righteous and
claim some special virtue for their position that makes it alright
for them to pollute the list. (So far, you've gotten both reactions.)
What they don't do is stop.
The only way I've ever thought of to deal effectively with this kind of
loser is to seek them out in the real world and chastise them with a
blunt instrument. Alas, though it's more than justified and would be
no end of satisfying, it would inevitably cost more time than simply
trying to ignore them.
At the worst, this is what twit filters are for. I use them a lot, though
mostly on newsgroups.
Owen Davies
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