Lighten Up, People!
floridanewbie
wrote:
>Since i have Webtv you know I am very limited in what I can do.
Nah, Karen, you aren't limited ... it is your software that has the
limitations <grin>
>I would like to know how people are cross posting and why?
I have not seen how WebTV works. When you reply to a post, does
WebTV show what group(s) to which the message will be sent? For
instance, instead of just sending this to alt.support.marriage I have
added alt.test (a legitimate test group name) ... do you see both
groups if you attempt to reply? If not, you would have no idea that
the message has been cross-posted to one or more other groups.
Some spam is cross-posted to dozens of groups; if you cannot see the
list of groups, it is dangerous to reply since others may now attack
you for daring to intrude on their placid little part of Usenet. I
admit, I often do not notice that something is cross-posted ... yep, a
sloppy, careless guy am I :-(
Why do people cross-post? Good question .. at times there may be a
question that might be answered by the participants in two or three
groups but well-behaved software allows the original poster to set the
followups to one group so all responses will gather in a single place.
Other times people cross-post to stir up trouble ... perhaps
cross-posting to rec.cooking.recipes and rec.pets.rabbits
Since Poopie is well known both in ASM and ASD, people in both groups
know who she is and understand her posting style for the most part.
However, the vast majority of participants in one group do not know
the folks in the other group so misunderstandings can arise ...
especially when inside jokes are mistaken for serious matters.
>How and why would you turn someone in to their ISP?????
Most Usenet groups are unmoderated ... there is no nanny to strike
down nasty posts or cross out nasty words. Some people cannot believe
people are allowed to express themselves in graphic language so they
contact the Service Provider, demanding the account be cancelled for
incivility and crudeness. Others may complaint because someone mocked
their religion, weight, culture, hair color, etc.
Any decent ISP will laugh at the up tight, complaining jerks ... real
ISPs do not monitor the content of people's e-mails, Usenet posts or
web pages although if someone complains of a legal violation
(copyright infringement, child porn, warez <cracked software>) the ISP
will try to determine if the complaint is legitimate once they are put
on notice.
Some confusion exists because AOL runs chat rooms and "boards" which
have monitors looking for bad conduct ... many AOLers do not
understand Usenet exists as a separate entity from AOL. I think it
may be possible that people who sign up for MSN (to get those $400
rebates, a deal I would NOT take) also do not realize Usenet is
completely separate from Micro$oft ... MS would like to believe its
"Communities" will replace Usenet ... hahahahaha, dream on!
If someone is harrassing you by e-mail and refuses to stop once you
put them on notice, you can file a complaint and forward those
offensive e-mails with all the headers to their Service Provider.
Conventions vary but generally complaints can be sent to
"ab...@domain.name" or "postm...@domain.name" ... thus, if I wanted
to complain about a WebTVer, I would send my message to
"ab...@webtv.net"
This may be more than you wanted to know. If I screwed up any of my
explanation, someone will hop in to make corrections ... or to add
other valid points. It is a lot of work to save newbie WebTVers...
they often stumble into these groups with virtually no information on
how they work and get their tail feathers singed and go away for keeps
with hurt feelings. It's nice to see you decided to stick around :-)
Floridanewbie