Re: JSH: Use ratings


jstevh@xxxxxxx wrote:
Proginoskes wrote:
jstevh@xxxxxxx wrote:
People coming in with Google Groups can rate posts, and I'd like more
people to start rating to help me pick which people to reply to.

If this experiment works, I'll start going more by group opinions on
posts.

I'd like to try and see if more of the crap posters can be weeded out
in this way, as they are down-rated to a level that I know I can
completely ignore them from now on.

Ever hear of a kill file?

Simply ignoring posters is not effective as if it were then flame wars
would not rage on Usenet the way they do.

In other words: No.

Some newsreaders offer an option called a "kill file" will download the
latest posts and delete certain posts (such as those by a particular
poster) before showing the posts to you. Alas, Google Groups doesn't
have this feature.

I have been in a lot of flame wars over the years and time after time
posters I argue with,

<sarcasm level=heavy>No, really?</sarcasm>

I once flamed someone. They never responded.

who get together with one or two other people and
can dominate a thread and even dominate discussions on a newsgroup,
clearly show they believe they have wide group support.

They even indicate that it is important to them.

Well, it must be, because otherwise they would just stop posting.
Flamers probably have some (possibly yet-unnamed) neurosis that compels
them to continue.

(I haven't managed to walk away from JSH yet, but I have managed to
walk away from Archimedes Plutonium. @#^@*, the hours I wasted reading
his posts!)

Ratings can kill their delusions of grandeur, remove the view that a
newsgroup of thousands is supporting 3 or 4 hostile people who just
post a lot, and possibly help to make the newsgroups more useful for
people seeking useful information.

Attention seeking small groups on the current Usenet can wreak havoc
with a few buddies, as 4 or 5 people make themselves look like the
opinion of an entire newsgroup.

Kill filing them does not send a message, does not break their
delusion, and does not give an opinion, while replying to them can lead
you down the annoying path of a flame war with a person capable and
willing to reply to you 24 hours a day for WEEKS.

I am serious. Some of these people will reply to you as much as you
reply back to them for weeks on end, and tag out for their buddies to
keep it up so that you spend day after day arguing with people who
often don't make any sense, who clearly believe they have full support
of the entire newsgroup.

I think these people are more thin-skinned than many of you realize,
and will fear getting down-rated with their postings--if enough people
do it!

Then when a poster has hundreds of people rating their posts as
worthless, it's harder for that person to believe they are the voice of
the newsgroup.

It takes a will to do it, and an understanding of how the process can
work, as it should become second nature for readers through Google
Groups to rate posts after they read them.

ALL of them, and not just ones in my threads.

Rate everybody, as it's easy. And then step back to see what
happens...

Or just do what JSH does: "Oh, another post by Proginoskes ... Better
skip it. A post by 'Tim Peters'. Better skip it ... " And it doesn't
cost Google Groups anything to implement.

--- Christopher Heckman

.

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