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Re: rampant offtopic and offensive posts to debian-user



On 5/19/07, Amy Templeton <amy.g.templeton@gmail.com> wrote:
Roberto C. Sánchez <roberto@connexer.com> wrote:
> On Sat, May 19, 2007 at 05:19:31PM -0400, Miles Fidelman wrote:
> > M. Fioretti wrote:
> > >No, sorry, the problem is a concrete, objective one:
> > >
> > >* everybody with any metered connection _pays_ real money
> > >every time these characters rerun their show
> > >
> > >
> > It's called IMAP - the bandwidth and time to download headers
> > is negligible, even over a dial-up.
> >
> There are also multiple solutions which allow downloading just
> headers and deleting messages from the server over a POP
> connection.

I've been guilty of facilitating some OT'ness since I joined the
list a couple weeks ago. I have been amazed at the sheer volume of
it, though, and have lately been mostly trying to stick only to
on-topic things I could help with.

For which  I, for one, am grateful.

The bandwidth argument, while I agree with those who object to all the OT nonsense, is really bogus.  I subscribe to debian-user through a gmail account (which anyone can get these days), and so read it (or don't) at a website.  The OT threads are obvious and easy to delete, and cost me nothing in bandwidth.

That said, there do seem to be a fair number of self-indulgent, self-important, opinionated pundits using this list for their own, irrelevant proselytizing of one view or another.  But I only know that because, on occasion, sort of like looking at a car wreck, I find myself opening one of those OT posts.  If you open one by accident, delete and move on.  Or so I advise (knowing there are deaf ears out there).

Patrick


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