"David C. Ullrich" <ullrich@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:ee3nqv07qai7l32s46b91o5j51fp096l6k@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On 6 Nov 2003 11:41:01 -0800, Ursula_de_Cologne@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Ursula)
> wrote:
>
> >David C. Ullrich <ullrich@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:<ra2iqv81ml60jiltv9gmb92okn9g00pc4e@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> >> On 4 Nov 2003 09:28:33 -0800, jstevh@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(James Harris) wrote:
[...]
> I have no idea what this group is all about, sorry. I'm spillover
> from sci.math, where Harris is the major resident crackpot.
> He's taken to posting all over usenet looking for sup****t, and
> some of us tend to follow him.
>
> If you're reading alt.writing because you have an interest in
> writing my advice is to killfile Harris and threads he starts.
I always have to wonder about such advice. In the first
place,exactly who are YOU to go around the net advising
people to killfile some poster who has rubbed you the
wrong way?
(We don't even need to get into the fact that your talking
about killfiles puts you in the category of people who
maunder about the marvels of butter churns and mutter
about the lost wonders of the bustle. Killfiles make no
sense, actually, except--if anyplace--in groups where
you have many hundreds of posts each day.I mean,
how long does it take a normal person to scan the
list of new posts each day in any of these five
groups? Ten seconds?)
Yet, even if someone is dullard enough to use a
killfile in groups like these, why should he take
your advice about killfiling a poster?
Is the point that YOUR Usenet contributions are so
much more valuable than Mr. Harris' that you are
afraid people will be wasting their precious Usenet
time reading Mr. Harris when they could be inhaling
the wisdom that you regularly impart to your own
most fortunate readers?
In other words, you are simply a do-gooder trying to
save the ignorant m***** from reading someone
who is not you and your pals! Is THAT your
contention?
Now, I am not going to say that Mr. Harris is the most
entertaining writer I 've ever read. On the other hand,
he did trouble himself to post a somewhat thought-
provoking stand-alone article on Usenet culture, and in
fact he generated a number of interesting responses,
right along with some flames from folks like you..
After all, it is so much easier to sit on the sidelines with
a peashooter and plink away with cheap little two-line
zingers at people who actually take Usenet and face
value and WRITE.
You might say I have a dog in this fight, because I have
been the target of a lot of this "I advise you to killfile this
person immediately" rubbish many times. In almost
every case, it is very easy to see that the poster is
resentful because he or she gets ignored while the
readers flock to me.
And, in those few cases when it isn't a clear-cut
case of reader-envy, the culprit is usually one of
those beastly "fangs-dripping-wisdom" types, so
swelled with self im****tance that the person much
resents anyone having a little fun while entertaining
and informing newsgroup readers. Whee...Making
people howl with laughter is not a lofty enough
achievement for these blathering, puffed up twits.
To paraphase T. S,. Eliot, they are "full of high
purpose and (more than) a bit absurd."
Actually, there is one other category of "killfile
advisors."For people like Pat Butler, threats of
killfiling and advice to killfile others have long
(TOO long) been a means of flaming. It is a
tedious, shopworn way to flame someone,
but don't tell Butler that. Actually, I tried to tell
her exactly that. I took Ms. Butler to task
yesterday because of her "butter churn and
bustle" approach to Usenet culture.
As a famous flamer, one of Butler's favorite
schticks involves her denying that she is a flamer
(Sort of like "Who? Me Flame? Me, Pat Butler?
I will have you know I am a BUSY, IM****TANT
PERSON with no time for such time-wasting
silliness.") Flame champ Butler needs to
stop resting on her laurels and develop some
new tactics, otherwise, she is just going to
become another run-of-the-mill newgroup
battle axe.
Anyway, if you can come up with some good
evidence as to why I should read you instead
of Mr. Harris, please post it. Otherwise, I will
have to shrug off your peevish advice as a simple
case of reader-envy.
[...]
accept no cheap imitations:
the alt.genius.bill-palmer
--firing posts at random from a window in an office
upstairs from rec.arts.prose
|
