Death to Trolling
mfav...@waikato.ac.nz
in this newsgroup. I feel that it is not only humiliating when being reeled in
by one of the old farts on the group, but also detrimental in that newbies will
be discouraged from making potentially useful posts for fear of being bolloxed.
No fishing!
On an interesting note, a man in Christchurch, N.Z, was run over and killed
the other day by his house. Is there a precedent for this?
Marty out.
Phil Gustafson
>I would just like to take a moment to comment about the practice of "trolling"
>in this newsgroup. I feel that it is not only humiliating when being reeled in
>by one of the old farts on the group, but also detrimental in that newbies will
>be discouraged from making potentially useful posts for fear of being bolloxed.
>No fishing!
Hmpf. Kids today can't even spell "hat".
Anyway, I agree that it's unproductive and rude to jump on naive new posters
and gloat about it, especially when there are so many deserving veterans
around.
Trolling can be fun, if it's reasonably subtle. Honest trolls usually
even have a more or less concealed message saying "This is a Troll" to
the imaginative reader. But asking a question straight out and abusing
anyone kind enough to post a straight answer just makes the group look
cliquish and inbred.
Fishing allowed, but artificial flies with barbless hooks only. Throw
back anyone who's never posted an ISBN.
Phil "Unless you're abusing them for not posting ISBN's" Gustafson
Richard Joltes
>Hmpf. Kids today can't even spell "hat".
>
>Anyway, I agree that it's unproductive and rude to jump on naive new posters
>and gloat about it, especially when there are so many deserving veterans
>around.
Quite true. I can't recall exactly when trolling became popular on AFU (I
think it was about 1 - 1.5 years ago) but at that point it was largely a
response to the huge number of totally clueless folks who'd never read the
FAQ or lurked on the group, but just jumped in and started babbling, thus
making the signal-to-noise ratio even worse than usual...if that's possible.
These days it's really getting out of hand, and I'm just as guilty as anyone
else of indulging on occasion.
>Trolling can be fun, if it's reasonably subtle. Honest trolls usually
>even have a more or less concealed message saying "This is a Troll" to
>the imaginative reader. But asking a question straight out and abusing
>anyone kind enough to post a straight answer just makes the group look
>cliquish and inbred.
Horrors! But sadly true. Recently I had to take several weeks off from
reading AFU, and getting back in has been difficult at best. With 200+
articles/day on many occasions it's really easy to miss someone's post and
end up tossing in the same data repeatedly, then getting flamed/trolled for
it. One shouldn't have to read every article for a month before posting a
reply to some thread, and some sites with only UUCP access can end up really
behind the times without really knowing it.
>Fishing allowed, but artificial flies with barbless hooks only. Throw
>back anyone who's never posted an ISBN.
Unless their name is Serdar Argic...
>Phil "Unless you're abusing them for not posting ISBN's" Gustafson
What's an ISBN? Ooops, what a giveaway...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dick "it's something like lutefisk, right?" Joltes |jol...@husc.harvard.edu
Manager, Microcomputing and Hardware, Computer Services|jol...@husc.BITNET
Harvard University Science Center |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It was generally considered by everyone else in the kingdom that the only
thing that might slow Greebo the cat down was a direct meteorite strike."
--Terry Pratchett, _Wyrd Sisters_
Robert Scott
>Quite true. I can't recall exactly when trolling became popular on AFU (I
>think it was about 1 - 1.5 years ago) but at that point it was largely a
>response to the huge number of totally clueless folks who'd never read the
the earliest (and still one of the best) successful afu troll i can
remember offhand was the guy who solemnly explained that "posh" stands
for "prow outward, stern homeward". (it had something to do with boats
being unable to turn around in port.) this was quite a while ago, i
think. can anyone name an earlier one?
-james dolan
Paul Monty Ashley
>Trolling can be fun, if it's reasonably subtle. Honest trolls usually
>even have a more or less concealed message saying "This is a Troll" to
>the imaginative reader. But asking a question straight out and abusing
>anyone kind enough to post a straight answer just makes the group look
>cliquish and inbred.
In case anyone's interested, my post of last week, subject-lined "Blatant
Trolling Attempt" only garnered one bite, by E-mail. And that was
half-hearted.
Just can't get the hang of it, as the newbie executioner said.
-Paul "Monty" "Tecumseh" Ashley
Kim Greer
>
>On an interesting note, a man in Christchurch, N.Z, was run over and killed
>the other day by his house. Is there a precedent for this?
Too bad he wasn't a merkin. He could have sued himself and won a lot of
money. But anyway, being dead, where does he plan to spend the life
insurance payoff? (Assuming that he did have insurance.) He's probably
whooping it up right now with some of the other dead people who frequent this
newsgroup.
K "perhaps Heaven-Eleven?" G
...or, more realistically :
K "planning to take it with me in asbestos travelers checks" G
Gene C. Miller
wrote:
> On an interesting note, a man in Christchurch, N.Z, was run over and killed
> the other day by his house. Is there a precedent for this?
Yes. In West Virginia several years ago, a man was crushed to death by his
house. It seems that on a particularly cold morning, he and his brother
were pushing their house down the road, trying to jumpstart the
furnace...Gene
Bruce Rechichar
is called plastic man. I was watching a dunk video and every time
he has a dunk somebody yells plastic man.......?
Brewski...
cask...@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
>dick joltes writes:
>
>the earliest (and still one of the best) successful afu troll i can
>remember offhand was the guy who solemnly explained that "posh" stands
>for "prow outward, stern homeward". (it had something to do with boats
>being unable to turn around in port.) this was quite a while ago, i
>think. can anyone name an earlier one?
>
>
>-james dolan
The story my parents told me when I was moving out of short pants (and I'm
thirty-mumble now - old for a newbie?) was that POSH stood for "Port Out,
Starboard Home" and referred to the side of the ship that first class
passengers were accomodated on sailing between Britain and India - the idea
being that in the absence of adequate ventilation in tropical waters you were
on the side away from the sun (ie, you were on the north side).
I suspect it's true, but you won't catch me admitting it. (Is this where I say
"motto"?) Anyway, it would have made a better troll than "prow outward...".
BTW, I've been reading AFU for a bit now, and think I've got the ground rules
sorted, but I haven't seen the FAQ yet. If the person who posts it sees this,
could they please email me a copy? (How many copies would I get if I said "Can
*anyone* send me a copy?")
Now... I don't know how widely this following story has travelled, but here
goes:
A yuppy type is standing in the departure lounge of a busy airport,
looking important and talking loudly and aggressively into a cellphone...
... When it rings.
OK - it's not the stuff of classic UL, but I've already seen it reproduced in a
couple of sources down this way, each time with slightly different details of
location, etc, so it's clearly moving like one.
Here's the thing about it; it is quite literally a FOAF story for me. It was
witnessed by the flatmate (and friend) of a very good workmate (and friend) of
mine and I was able to check my sources. The eye-witness is a stewardess, the
location Wellington airport domestic terminal. Hey, eveything's gotta start
somewhere. The embellishments should be kicking in soon...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"My mind/it ain't so open/that anything/could crawl right in" - Magazine, 1978
"There's a bit of free space in mine; care to go fishing" - Steve Caskey, 1993
"Call that a .sig, why in my day..." - The Old Fart's Internet Guide, 1998
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Tomblin
>Just can't get the hang of it, as the newbie executioner said.
And how many newbies have _you_ executed recently?
Paul "Will invoke the Usenet Death Penalty for flames" Tomblin
Phil Gustafson
This group isn't about sports. It's about urban legends.
This thread isn't about dunk videos or plastic men. It's about not being
mean and nasty to naive posters.
Did Ghod send you to test our souls?
Phil "Or His Unitarian equivalent?" Gustafson
bill nelson
:
: BTW, I've been reading AFU for a bit now, and think I've got the ground rules
: sorted, but I haven't seen the FAQ yet. If the person who posts it sees this,
: could they please email me a copy? (How many copies would I get if I said "Can
: *anyone* send me a copy?")
Probably very few. At least - not from the more astute readers of the group,
since that would not be a request.
Bill "No one here provides unsolicited information" Nelson
Kim Greer
+In article <1993Sep27.1...@waikato.ac.nz+, mfav...@waikato.ac.nz
+wrote:
+
++ On an interesting note, a man in Christchurch, N.Z, was run over and killed
++ the other day by his house. Is there a precedent for this?
+
+Yes. In West Virginia several years ago, a man was crushed to death by his
+house. It seems that on a particularly cold morning, he and his brother
+were pushing their house down the road, trying to jumpstart the
+furnace...Gene
This might be the same guy who had the fire in his bathroom the other
day. Fortunately, he got it put out before it reached the house.
K "that's "water closet" for the US impaired" G
Kim Greer
Maybe he is often cited for "charging"?
AND IN THE NBA, THEY _DON'T_ TAKE AMERICAN EXPRESS!
Apologies for shouting.
K "no shirt - no shoes - no service - cash only - no refunds
- all sales final" G
Kim Greer
>
>Now... I don't know how widely this following story has travelled, but here
>goes:
> A yuppy type is standing in the departure lounge of a busy airport,
> looking important and talking loudly and aggressively into a cellphone...
> ... When it rings.
Somewhat like what I saw one morning on my way into work. These 2
super-bad "Shaft" wannabes were driving in the car ahead of me when we came
to a stop light. They showed their contempt for the law (at least I guess
that's what they were trying to do) by peeling out (no, I didn't see any
spiders or snakes come out of bananas) when the light turned green. Their
"cellphone" "antenna" promptly fell off the back of the car, and was promptly
smashed under my wheels. Gee, somehow I had always imagined that there
would be come kind of wire or something to connect the antenna to the phone.
K "Ooohh, so its _wireless_ phones" G
No parking EXCEPT FOR BOB
>>dick joltes writes:
>>
>>the earliest (and still one of the best) successful afu troll i can
>>remember offhand was the guy who solemnly explained that "posh" stands
>>for "prow outward, stern homeward". (it had something to do with boats
>>being unable to turn around in port.) this was quite a while ago, i
>>think. can anyone name an earlier one?
>>
>>
>>-james dolan
>
>The story my parents told me when I was moving out of short pants (and I'm
>thirty-mumble now - old for a newbie?) was that POSH stood for "Port Out,
>Starboard Home" and referred to the side of the ship that first class
>passengers were accomodated on sailing between Britain and India - the idea
>being that in the absence of adequate ventilation in tropical waters you were
>on the side away from the sun (ie, you were on the north side).
Those attributions are a mite confusing - whose catch _is_ this?
Its definitely a keeper.
And with the most blatant of subject lines, no less.
Bob "I was about to ask `who's' catch, but, naaahhh" O'Bob
--
Lee Boyle
=>
=> >Quite true. I can't recall exactly when trolling became popular on AFU (I
=> >think it was about 1 - 1.5 years ago) but at that point it was largely a
=> >response to the huge number of totally clueless folks who'd never read the
=> >
Robert Scott writes:
=>
=> the earliest (and still one of the best) successful afu troll i can
=> remember offhand was the guy who solemnly explained that "posh" stands
=> for "prow outward, stern homeward". (it had something to do with boats
=> being unable to turn around in port.) this was quite a while ago, i
=> think. can anyone name an earlier one?
Whether trolling became popular last week or in the late pre-seventies
isn't as important as the content. IMHO, legal bait must refer to an
item in the FAQ, with some exceptions for topical items and classic ULs.
Any bait to which I may happen to respond is illegal. There should be
a limit on the number of groups which may be fished simultaneously, and
on the total quantity of bait in a single post. Whenever possible, the
catch should be released without permanent psychological scars. This
is also for your own protection. Remember the student who stalked that
poor guy in D.C. last year after he roasted him so hadly.
And by the way, I think I read someplace that it's really "Password Or
Secret Handshake". Perhaps somebody can find the reference for me.
Oh, and it's not fair to steal somebody else's bait.
--
Lee Boyle;boy...@agcs.com;standard disclaimers apply;;
bill nelson
:
: Somewhat like what I saw one morning on my way into work. These 2
: super-bad "Shaft" wannabes were driving in the car ahead of me when we came
: to a stop light. They showed their contempt for the law (at least I guess
: that's what they were trying to do) by peeling out (no, I didn't see any
: spiders or snakes come out of bananas) when the light turned green. Their
: "cellphone" "antenna" promptly fell off the back of the car, and was promptly
: smashed under my wheels. Gee, somehow I had always imagined that there
: would be come kind of wire or something to connect the antenna to the phone.
Actually, there isn't. All the incident tells you is that the antenna
was poorly installed. If it was real, it relies on capacitive coupling
to get the signal through the glass. It is not safe to drill a hole in
a window - makes a weak spot where the glass will untimately crack or
shatter.
Bill
Gregory C Franklin
boy...@agcs.com (Lee "Game Warden" Boyle) writes:
> .....Whenever possible, the
> catch should be released without permanent psychological scars. This
> is also for your own protection. Remember the student who stalked that
> poor guy in D.C. last year after he roasted him so hadly.
Got a cite for this? The story sounds kinda fishy to me.
Greg "anyone think this group is floundering a bit?" Franklin
--
Greg Franklin "Shopping on stones, wokking on coals,
fran...@gas.uug.arizona.edu to improve your business acumen."
Kim Greer
>Got a cite for this? The story sounds kinda fishy to me.
>Greg "anyone think this group is floundering a bit?" Franklin
Yes, but I wouldn't carp about it.
K "once again, doing it on dolphin ... err, porpoise, but certainly not
just for the halibut" G
Richard Joltes
>In article <28999m$p...@golem.wcc.govt.nz> cask...@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz writes:
>> rsc...@ic.sunysb.edu (Robert Scott) writes:
>>>dick joltes writes:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>>the earliest (and still one of the best) successful afu troll i can
>>>remember offhand was the guy who solemnly explained that "posh" stands
>>>for "prow outward, stern homeward". (it had something to do with boats
>>>being unable to turn around in port.) this was quite a while ago, i
>>>think. can anyone name an earlier one?
>>>
>>>-james dolan
Confused attribution above!!! I didn't write this, james did...
>>The story my parents told me when I was moving out of short pants (and I'm
>>thirty-mumble now - old for a newbie?) was that POSH stood for "Port Out,
>>Starboard Home" and referred to the side of the ship that first class
>>passengers were accomodated on sailing between Britain and India - the idea
>>being that in the absence of adequate ventilation in tropical waters you were
>>on the side away from the sun (ie, you were on the north side).
>
>
>Those attributions are a mite confusing - whose catch _is_ this?
>Its definitely a keeper.
>And with the most blatant of subject lines, no less.
Blatant? On AFU? Nah, probably a reverse-troll.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dick "watching the watchers" Joltes |jol...@husc.harvard.edu
Kim Greer
+k...@mookie.mc.duke.edu (Kim Greer) writes:
+
+Actually, there isn't. All the incident tells you is that the antenna
+was poorly installed. If it was real, it relies on capacitive coupling
+to get the signal through the glass. It is not safe to drill a hole in
+a window - makes a weak spot where the glass will untimately crack or
+shatter.
+
+Bill
Very good point, except for the fact that it was glued/adhesive taped
right in the middle of the (metal) trunk lid, far enough (about 18-24") from
the back windshield that capacitive coupling would be, um, streching it a
little. Had it been on the glass, yeah, I could buy that explanation. That
plus the fact that I had heard of sham antennae you could buy to win friends
and influence people.
I know what of you speak, though. Being a peruser of radio (mostly short
wave) catalogs, I've seen a number of these outfits for sale. I've never
wanted one, as putting up SW antennas to get that last dB of signal is enough
work to not want to squander it for lack of drilling a hole in something.
K "will drill holes for antennas" G
Drew Lawson
>I would just like to take a moment to comment about the practice of "trolling"
>in this newsgroup. I feel that it is not only humiliating when being reeled in
>by one of the old farts on the group, but also detrimental in that newbies will
^^^^^
I know it is against Usenet guidelines to pick on spelling, but furrfu!
Those Kiwis can't even spell "hats" correctly.
>be discouraged from making potentially useful posts for fear of being bolloxed.
You're starting to get the point. Most of the "potentially useful"
postings from newbies have tended to be about can tabs, the etymology
of "posh" and "that'd be in the butt, Bob" video tapes. (That guy
never did produce the tape, did he?)
AFU is the Usenet application of the Software Engineering U/I
Philosophy of "If it was hard to develop, it should be hard to use."
(Besides, it's fun.)
Drew "gotta pay your dues if you're gonna sing the blues" Lawson
--
Drew Lawson | I had to sell my internal organs
law...@acuson.com | Just to pay the rent.
| -- Weird Al (When I was Your Age)
Robert Scott
>In article <28999m$p...@golem.wcc.govt.nz> cask...@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz writes:
...
>>The story my parents told me when I was moving out of short pants (and I'm
>>thirty-mumble now - old for a newbie?) was that POSH stood for "Port Out,
>>Starboard Home" and referred to the side of the ship that first class
...
>Those attributions are a mite confusing - whose catch _is_ this?
>Its definitely a keeper.
>And with the most blatant of subject lines, no less.
see, i told you this was a good one- from beyond the grave, it hooked
another one. i swear i was not trying to catch this one, it just leapt
up and slapped me in the face. all credit to the original poster,
whoever they were.
-james dolan
bill nelson
: In article <1993Sep29.2...@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com> bi...@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
:
: Very good point, except for the fact that it was glued/adhesive taped
: right in the middle of the (metal) trunk lid, far enough (about 18-24") from
: the back windshield that capacitive coupling would be, um, streching it a
: little. Had it been on the glass, yeah, I could buy that explanation. That
: plus the fact that I had heard of sham antennae you could buy to win friends
: and influence people.
OK - that wasn't stated in the post. There are trunk mount antennas, but
they are not capacitively coupled.
Yeah, I expect there are some yuppies that think they are impressing others,
when they have a cellular phone - as well as others who think they are doing
the same by having a fake antenna.
Actually, they probably are doing so - impressing others on just how idiotic
and status conscious they are.
Bill
Drew Lawson
rsc...@ic.sunysb.edu (Robert Scott) writes:
>dick joltes writes:
>
>>Quite true. I can't recall exactly when trolling became popular on AFU (I
>>think it was about 1 - 1.5 years ago) but at that point it was largely a
>>response to the huge number of totally clueless folks who'd never read the
>
>
>the earliest (and still one of the best) successful afu troll i can
>remember offhand was the guy who solemnly explained that "posh" stands
>for "prow outward, stern homeward".
And I thought that the "classic" was when the Death of the Net almost
occured because of a single comment that Lost in Space was better than
Star Trek.
Who was that, anyway? I've repressed most memories of that era.
Drew "Are Classic Trolls better than New Trolls?" Lawson
--
| Now I'm gettin' old
Drew Lawson | I don't wear underwear
law...@acuson.com | I don't go to church
| and I don't cut my hair
Richard N Kitchen
In a previous article, law...@acuson.com (Drew Lawson) says:
>Drew "Are Classic Trolls better than New Trolls?" Lawson
>--
Yes, because Classic Trolls contain sugar, while New Trolls contain Corn
Syrup.
Rick "Will drink New Trolls . . no, wait a minute . . . " Kitchen
--
Rick Kitchen da...@cleveland.freenet.edu
"I can't function with this guillotine on my back."
--Margo Cody, "Black Tie Affair"