On or around Sat, 7 Oct 2006 00:03:30 +0100, "SimonJ" <
[email protected]>
enlightened us thusly:
>>
>That would be one way round it, but you shouldn't need to.
says who?
>
>The whole point of a newsgroup is to ask questions of, or impart information
>to, anybody who reads the group.
says who?
and besides, sometimes the information is of interest: suppose someone asks
whether Beamends can supply a certain part, and if so at what price. It
might well prove that other people will be interested in the answer. For
example, I've often noted the answer to a question about a particular part,
and thereby saved both my time and Richard's time by not having to ask the
same question again.
Granted, Richard has a website, and as such things go it's quite good, but
it can still be difficult to find particular parts, especially if you don't
happen to know either the part number or the "correct" name.
>If you have a question for a specific
>person, then contact that person direct, off group. Someone's shopping list
>does not need to be public knowledge, and is irrelevant to the group. That's
>what email is for.
and if email isn't working for some reason?
Newsgroups are "for" whatever the people using the group want them to be
"for". If you don't like a particular aspect, you have choices including
ignoring it, killing threads, filtering on subject or poster, or even not
bothering to read the group at all.
You don't have the right to prevent people from posting things which are
relevant to the group but which you don't happen to like - and you'd have a
hard time convincing anyone, even if there were anyone to convince, that
questions about LR parts are off-topic in AFL. Come to that, you can't, in
any case, prevent people posting etc., as innumerable trolls often prove.
In the case in question, the threads are almost always clearly identifiable
by subject and should be easily ignored if they bore you, or to filter for
if you can't be bothered to simply skip to the next message or thread.
Basically, it's down to every reader to decide what, if any, of the group
content they want to read, except of course for moderated groups - which are
the only groups where any sort of control is or can be imposed.
--
Austin Shackles.
www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
"The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn, The swallow twittering
from the strawbuilt shed, The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing
horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed."
Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.
