In article <3A4AC8C7.B376463A@istar.ca>, sde### [at] istarca wrote:
>Slowly it devolved into more and more arguments. At first they were 
>entertaining, or funny. Eventually they got tiresome. Then I left 
>entirely for about a month or so, and I didn't really miss it. I came 
>back a couple of days ago to see what was happening, and was very 
>surprised at what it had become.

The usefulness of an off-topic group in a community such as this one 
will never work unless people learn to use killfiles. I think part of 
the problem is with their name. "Killfile" sounds so eeevvviiilllll. 
I've seen them called "penalty box" on other systems, but even that 
holds too much judgement. Maybe the "play nice file", but that's also 
showing an emotional judgement. The "not interested right now" file 
perhaps.

In an off-topic group lots of things will be discussed. A killfile 
should be viewed as no more than a useful tool for determining 
interests. Some people will often post things that other people are 
uninterested in or don't want to see. It only takes two people to make a 
long-running thread, sometimes only one, and asking everyone to not post 
if they think their statements will be controversial anywhere else in 
the world is completely the wrong way of doing things. It only takes one 
person to break such a system. But if everyone takes responsibility for 
their own interests and dislikes, the problem that you describe goes 
away.

Jerry
-- 
http://www.hoboes.com/jerry/
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish, and you've
depleted the lake."--It Isn't Murder If They're Yankees
(http://www.hoboes.com/jerry/Murder/)

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