VanguardLH said:
What PA Bear and other dubious MVPs have started is now getting
imitated by more users: rather than recommend a change in venue, they
make an unsolicited move of someone else's thread to somewhere they
have deemed by their own bias as a more appropriate newsgroup. This
is trollish behavior.
<rant_start>
If the OP wishes to move or copy their discussion to another group,
that should be *their* choice and not as an UNSOLICITED action
enforced by you. Despite the pretense, you are not a moderator or
admin but just another user who is propagating the OP's discussion to
different group(s) that you have divined are more appropriate and to
possibly enlarge the audience or hopefully provide a more focused
community on the topic but which may not be a correct action. The
actual source of the problem may turn out to not be relevant to those
other groups simply based on what the OP reported as the symptoms and
upon what you based your decision to forcibly redirect someone else's
discussion. If the OP wants to move or copy their discussion to
another group, that should be THEIR choice and not yours. You should
only recommend to the OP that there may be more appropriate or useful
groups to which the OP should repost or cross-post their message, not
enforce the propagation of the OP's discussion to other groups.
A misguided urge to enlarge or change exposure for a discussion based
on your biases or presumptions is not an adequate reason to alter the
Newsgroups header. Recommend the OP should move. Do not SHOVE them
over. It should be the OP's choice as to where they focus their
discussion, not a forced change made by you. Despite trying to help,
forcing a redirection of someone else's discussion is trollish
behavior. Suggest the change, don't force it.
<rant_end>
I think you are over-reacting.
"Forcing" a cross-post to a more appropriate group is going to help the
OP in this situation. It's not as if the thread will no longer appear in
the windowsxp.general newsgroup. If OP sees the replies (even those made
by those who read it in the internetexplorer group) in the general
group, no harm is done. The crosspost is bringing those who have more
specialized and focused experience into play.
There is an added bonus as well. From now on, if OP has an IE-specific
question, he knows the best group to make the post in.
