DAN said:
So maybe a more appropriate question would be why 3 or 4 individuals impose
their militant fundamentalist views on the group and permanently take "justice"
in their hands. IMHO those extremist and compulsive cops are more the problem
than 99% of the rest.
I seldom quote much from a previous message, but this time I will make
an exception, it saves me the effort of writing it myself.
2-Certainly some guidelines as to on- and off-topic are useful. Now when some
poster once in a while breaches those guidelines, that does NOT amount to free
season for the compulsive aggressors to compensate for their lack of a life on
their own an to run amok on the poor sod.
Unless there is a repeated, deliberate transgression, the rule should always be
1)tolerance, 2)politeness, 3)MYOB. And only when one poster makes an annoyance
of him/herself then there is legitimate grounds for saying something politely at
first, and maybe lashing out later if it goes on.
I don't see how any "policing action" can be legitimate and claim to contribute
to a better group without following this. (And IMO today most netkops FAIL this
most basic test, thus make themselves the negative contributors here).
I agree to 100% with the above. The netkops have no class or culture,
they just jump on people with very heavy artillery as soon as they
feel justified to do so.
Their first action is not to explain or politely ask for another
behavior, no, their first action is to file abuse reports to the
offenders ISP, newsserver admins and his employer.
If the "offender" shows up again he may be threatened with physical
violence, in the style of John Corliss.
These netkops have no consideration for other people's peace of mind,
because they have no peace of mind themselves, they have learned to
live with a stressy world and they think others should learn that too.
These busybodies are fighting a crusade, where no means are forbidden,
because the cause is so important, much more important than other
people and their peace of mind, or the atmosphere in a newsgroup.
Netkops are speed freaks, they live to be frenzied, always excited,
always hunting, and they like to get blood on their hands.
They don't mind being involved in an eternal quarrel with others.
It makes them feel they are alive.
They have minds which cannot find rest and peace, so they attack
others in their frenzy, instead of getting to the bottom of their own
problems they want to teach others to be constantly excited too.
They have already made millions of people turn away from usenet
because there is too much rudeness and aggressivity here.
3)While this group is about freeware, and we should encourage freeware use in
discussions here, this in no way means that mentioning non-freeware is
inappropriate. Just to take basic examples, it is perfectly sensible to compare
the features of a word processor or spreadsheet with MS's word and Excel, which
are the one that most everyone knows. Or to compare a zip app with Winzip.
I am not saying that promoting payware would be appropriate, but just that their
status does not make them a religious taboo and un-mentionnable. Bigots be
damned.
(Yes there is a limit to be found somewhere, but 1-it is not zero, and 2-I won't
let netkops decide where it is in my stead).
Yes, absolutely. Free speach and a nicer atmosphere is needed.
4) My own brand of philosophico-religious: Letting the netkops loose as we have
done so far here is very dangerous.
- it condones extremist fundamentalist behavior,
- it lets people with a basic personality disorder take it out on the group,
- it has become unpleasantly close to the worst types of censorship that history
teaches us about.
When Corliss replaces an app's name by *** in quoting an otherwise perfectly
legitimate discussion, doesn't this remind anyone of the worst practices of
the Catholic Inquisition's censorship, with fig leaves on statues and all?
It's a crusade, by people who have feverish minds.
Their overheated minds make them blind to other people's rights and
feelings, they have a cause to fight for and that is more important
than everything else.
Behaving like this has its place in a medieval kingdom or in a theocracy, but
not in a free society.
They don't know what a free society means.
- I don't agree to letting 4-5 bozos erect themselves into a militia policing
the group. Especially if it is for CENSORING it. Not the way to do things.
Besides, there should be a limit to the amount of censorship posts doled out
by a single individual in a week, or something. Letting fundamentalists and
excited yahoos rampage is just not right.
"Fundamentalists" and "excited" are exactly the words I would use too.
5) the group would be much more pleasant without the persistent irritant caused
by a few prudes always grouching.
"Top posting is not allowed in this newsgroup, Thank you."
(Boomer style patronizing comment)
6) If some people can't stand the mere mention of an app that is unholy in their
book, those people do have the option of killfiling the offender to preserve
their purity. No need for aggression on anyone.
And no need to scream PLONK! either, that does not help the group's atmosphere.
The netkops have no consideration for atmosphere, probably because
they have no peace in their own lives. They are feverishly running
back and forth, not realizing that they are the ones who should learn
something, they always think they are in this world to teach others.
7) Freeware are not always the very best solution. Within reason (ie no spamming
etc), there is no taboo that should prevent someone from mentioning a $-ware
alternative if there is a valid reason.
For ex when we discuss MP3 tagging/renaming/etc, I have often discussed the free
alternatives, and added that IMO the vastly superior utility is MP3tagStudio,
which is ad-ware. As long as I don't cross the line into spamming, this is fair
information (or fair opinion, or whatever). Anyway, prudes be darned.
I have seen several discussions here by people looking for solutions
to their problems, and many times I have thought that they obviously
have not visited
www.ghisler.com (nagware), if they had done that they
would not have to search for less useful solutions.
But, of course, it is not allowed to mention that url, so what can I
do, but to see them search and search for really "pure" freeware.
For adding comments about each file, for example, which become visible
as tool tip style comment when hovering the cursor for 0.2 seconds on
the file. Stored in descript.ion file, comment is moved and copied
with the file.
Intelligent commercial programmers, like mr Ghisler, make their
programs fairly easily accessible, knowing that if millions (and soon,
billions) of users get used to use the program, and are telling others
about it, a certain part of the users will surely pay for it one day
too, to get rid of the nag screen, or to support a programmer who have
helped the users so much without nagging them too much.
Ok I'll vote too. I have changed the number where I wanted too, and
added comments.
For all the categories above the usefulness is the important factor.
How useful and valuable is the program, after you have subtracted the
negative factors from its value.
But I want to add two categories:
Open source freeware: 6 (You can change it freely for your own use.)
Open source public domain freeware: 7
It means you can change it, re-release it, develop it, do whatever you
want with it, so it has a maximal potential for free further
development by its users.
These two extra categories can encourage the users of a program to
learn a little about the programming language it is written in.
You can often change a little without knowing so much about
programming, and it would create a bridge between users and
programmers. More people would learn more about programming in a
natural way, step by step.
)