What will stop all the OffTopic Spam?

Why else would one post answers to dumb questions on Usenet? A small part is trying to be helpful, but the majority of my effort is directed toward self-engrandizement, ego inflation, fame, notoriety, and repeating my favorite rants until someone believes them. Smart-ass is far better than dumb-ass.

I don't have any problem with differing points of view. The problem I have is when they state their one-line opinion, and then don't bother to substantiate or explain it. I don't really care about someone's opinions. I care about why they think the world is flat or how they came to that conclusion. I can learn from that, but not from the one-line opinion. With a generation raised on emoticons, SMS messaging, forums with room for only one liners, and now Twitter, I sometimes wonder if they're simply unable to compose more than one-line or properly substantiate anything.

I would also be seriously worried if anyone ever agreed with me. Agreement is very abnormal on Usenet. For every statement, one can expect dozens of contrary comments, but little or no agreement. People that agree, just simply don't post. If anything, they will find some minor and often insignificant part of the topic, and disagree with that (causing topic drift). It's also difficult to be smart-ass when agreeing, but very easy when disagreeing.

There's also the phenomenon on Usenet, where the most trivial and badly written questions, receive the most answers, while well written, properly researched, and fairly intelligent questions, are ignored. Just look at the list of off-topic, wrong newsgroup, minimal information, and just plain incoherent questions in sci.electronics.repair. Only the dumbest (like this thread) get attention. It's to much work to deal with a real problem. After a few failed attempts, anyone with a real problem is certainly not going to supply the necessary detail and numbers. They'll just post low quality question, and sift through the smart-ass comments hoping to find a clue. It works.

At the bottom of every dumpster and garbage heap is a diamond. All one needs to do is dig through all the garbage to find it. So it is with problem solving on Usenet.

So, feel free to reply with the traditional one-line disagreement. Until I get my one-line filter working, I can still manually ignore such postings.

There's a lot of things Highwinds doesn't have. Starting with intelligent help...

I agree ...

Arfa :-)

Me too

Ron ;)

Nicholas Bodley wrote:

Almost 100%. It's the rare spammer that is smart. Most leave a drip-trail leading right back to themselves. X-Complaints-To data is in the header. Most spammers aren't sophistocated enough to mask that.

If the abuse contact data points to Google, ignore that. Google is 100% mercenary; even if they cancel the *account* Google will accept another signup that uses THE SAME email account. All you have to do is a Reverse-DNS on the Posting Host. That gives the ISP and the abuse contact data. Bitch to those folks.

I some cases, no. All internet-related activity out of China is criminal in nature and the providers are no different than their customers.

There is a guy in Finland who is brain-injured like the MI-5 guy and spews paranoia in his native language. Don't bother, his provider doesn't give a shit.

The Giuen Holding spammer uses a provider in Germany. As he reappears regularly using the same host, apparently, they don't give a shit.

The providers for the 365 spammer are rogue. The providers for the 18 spammer are rogue.

Spam from most *other* sources stops shortly after reports. It may be coincidence, it may be cause-and-effect; can't say for sure which is which. As Szekeres intimated, if you do nothing, you exert zero control.

Dead men tell no tales. OTOH, a face beaten into geletin with a baseball bat (but the dirtbag survives) would communicate the point well. If the *gatekeepers* at the providers got the **same** treatment, THEN I think things would change.

Sorry to ruin your day, Jeff, but I agree with you.

Leonard

My day is ruined, but it's not your fault. It was the fettuccini Alfredo made from assorted noodles, engine oil, with unidentifiable mushrooms, dry lube parmesan, and lawn clippings as toppings. It seemed tasty, but now I feel just as nauseous as when I read Usenet. Ummm... I wonder what type of mushrooms?

I should ignore your one-liner, but it's been so long since anyone has agreed with me, I want to savour the moment. I'm sure it will wear off rapidly, but I wanna enjoy it while it lasts.

Enough philosophy and home cooking for one day. Please try to become part of the solution, instead of part of the problem.

(I was going to answer with a one-line reply, but I don't know how to be so brief).

I disagree. ;^)

FWIW, I've been firing off complaints to Google about their spammers, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference.