It seems that spammers have taken over this fine group

[Ernie of Trebizond]

Spammers selling medication have taken over our beloved alt.smoking.pipes group. Do we still have a moderator? What can we do?

[Mike Spencer]

Ernie of Trebizond <spe...@gmail.com> writes:

> Spammers selling medication have taken over our beloved
> alt.smoking.pipes group. Do we still have a moderator?

Did we ever?

> What can we do?

If your news reader doesn't provide a way to filter on subject lines,
just wait them out. Given the fraction of netizens who use Usenet,
spamming a newsgroup has to be an unrewarding proposition.

--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

[Jim]

On Tue, 23 May 2023 12:30:45 -0700, Ernie of Trebizond wrote:

> Spammers selling medication have taken over our beloved
> alt.smoking.pipes group. Do we still have a moderator? What can we do?

First, never respond to a spam post. That tells the spammer
he has an audience. Better yet, never mention you have seen
a spam post. The spammer might have software searching for
any sign of an audience.

a.s.p. has never had a moderator. Some usenet groups have
a self-appointed tyrant of the group, and attempts are made
to rail at those not meeting local standards in any way,
but mostly that is pointless. Better to live and let live.

Most newsgroup readers have a means of deleting or sorting
spam, based on keywords or some other criteria. Learn how
to use it, or simply delete manually or ignore spam,
whichever seems to suit you better.

Cheers!

jim b.

--
UNIX is not user-unfriendly, it merely
expects users to be computer friendly.

[hardcrackers]

They seem to come and go with time for whatever reasons. Eventually they realize they don't have an audience here with the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.

Ron Hardcrackers in E. Oklahoma

Smoking an ancient WDC Bulldog with a gold band and a replacement slightly bent FrankenPipe stem filled with C&D Billy Budd they made from Sailorman Jack's original recipe.
I have to wait until SWMBO goes to bed and for good reasons! I was smoking here in my den at night when the dog wanted out. I returned to my den, shut the door and a terrible stench hit me in the face! Uh oh, I know that smell so I checked the bottom of my shoes thinking I stepped in it in the dark! Nothing there? It was the Billy Budd room note!

[Jim]

On Thu, 25 May 2023 21:38:42 -0700, hardcrackers wrote:

> Ron Hardcrackers in E. Oklahoma
>
> Smoking an ancient WDC Bulldog with a gold band and a replacement
> slightly bent FrankenPipe stem filled with C&D Billy Budd they made from
> Sailorman Jack's original recipe.

I did not remember Billy Budd recipe, so checked the net. Latakia
blend. That explains why invocation of Sailorman Jack would not
bring it to mind.

> I have to wait until SWMBO goes to bed and for good reasons! I was
> smoking here in my den at night when the dog wanted out. I returned to
> my den, shut the door and a terrible stench hit me in the face! Uh oh,
> I know that smell so I checked the bottom of my shoes thinking I
> stepped in it in the dark! Nothing there? It was the Billy Budd room
> note!

Perhaps there is a reason I stick to the British flakes, cut plugs,
and similar blends that are free of the Mideast desert leaf?

FWIW, my check of the net turned up a nice article by Chuck Stanion.
A Closer Look At Latakia Tobacco, September 4, 2020, in Tobacco Talk.

Available at (all one long line):

https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/closer-look-
latakia-tobacco

[hardcrackers]

Billy Budd also has cigar leaf.
RW

[Louis F Carbone]

On 5/23/2023 3:30 PM, Ernie of Trebizond wrote:
> Spammers selling medication have taken over our beloved alt.smoking.pipes group. Do we still have a moderator? What can we do?

Please block them all!

[hardcrackers]

Oh I do Lou, and with pleasure!

[Mike Spencer]

Jim <jim....@verizon.net> writes:

> FWIW, my check of the net turned up a nice article by Chuck Stanion.
> A Closer Look At Latakia Tobacco, September 4, 2020, in Tobacco Talk.
>
> Available at (all one long line):
>
> https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/closer-look-
> latakia-tobacco

Very nice. Thank you.

Here's a Latakia story:

Many years ago, some time in the 60s, I was in a coffee house in
Portsmouth, NH. I was sitting next to a fireplace with an open fire
burning. The whole room -- largish, perhaps 60 or more people -- had
a thermocline of cigarette smoke hanging just above head height. I
was smoking my pipe.

Idly watching people, I noticed a man come out from the kitchen on the
far side of the room, sniff the air, look all around. He moved to a
spot nearer the center of the room and repeated the sniff test and
scan. When he spotted me, he made a bee line for my table and said,
"Are you smoking Balkan Sobranie?" I confessed that I was doing just
that. He said, "Will you please stop? It makes me sick!"

Any one else ever encounter this reaction to Balkan Sobranie. Since
then I've bumped into people who were equally hostile to the Sobranie
note but never in a preexisting room full of tobacco smoke.

[fratermus]

On 2023-07-12, Mike Spencer <m...@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:

> "Are you smoking Balkan Sobranie?" I confessed that I was doing just
> that. He said, "Will you please stop? It makes me sick!"

That is bizarre. Maybe he was desensitized to the acrid cigarette smoke.