[TheForge] Effectively filtering the offensive.

[Jerry Frost]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Darrell" <darrell@machinemaster.com>
To: <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2003 9:01 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] pc amends ;) OT and offensive.
<neener><neener><neener>


> Rowland,
> Andy hasn't offended me for almost a year. That is how long I have had him
> in my blocked sender list. The only problem I continue to have is other
> people that I do read keep responding to him and quote what he wrote.
>
> Darrell
>


Okay, I can help you with this. Simply "blocking" a sender isn't enough. On
another list there is (or was I don't get anything recognizably from this
"person" anymore) a particularly shrill and evidently bored woman who's only
contribution (I've noticed anyway) is strife with malice of forethought. In
her own words as she pitched fresh fuel on the still smoldering embers of a
recently fading flame war she initiated in the first place, "the list seemed
a little dull".

I'd already used the block function against her and as you say all the
outraged replies, pro and con came through anyway. Almost worse were all the
folk complaining about the inappropriate topics, ultimately these added up
to as much or more wasted bandwidth.

What I ended up doing was setting multiple filters. I specified her: name,
nicknames, aliases and her Edresses in the: "from", "sender", "subject" and
"message body". I now have more filters set against this woman than the
worst porn spammer, from the days before our ISP installed anti-spam
software. I now don't recieve anything from her, firsthand, replies, nor
responses. At least nothing recognizable anyway, which is good enough.

The only downside being her "names" make it really unlikely I'll see any
posts about a certain city in Switzerland or any recipes using certain hot
spicy vegetables. Fortunately this applies only to the other list as the
filters only apply to said list.

Regardless, she stirred things up so badly I ended up unsubbing anyway, at
least till the smoke cleared and so far the other list has passed probation.

If Andy really bothers you so much his posts will be easy enough to filter,
his name and nickname are unique so you won't even miss out on a good
recipe. Set your filters for the: "Sender" line, "From" line, "Subject" line
and "Message Body", using: "Andy Vida", "Andy V." (some folk use his initial
in responses and you don't want anything getting through) And "Demon
Buddha," lastly, use ALL his Edresses. Remember to specify all these
parameters in all four areas, Sender, From, Subject and Body.

Just remember, though Andy is opinionated in the extreme and often just
plain wrong he's one of the good guys. Andy never fails to jump in with help
when he can, not just online either. He helps people in the real physical
world to the point of severely taxing his own life and well being. Put more
simply he's demonstrated the willingness to make substantial personal
sacrifices to help other people.

Whether or not you filter someone is a judgement call everyone has to make
for themselves. For myself I've been tempted on more than one occasion, on
this and other lists. For myself a person has to be more than annoying, they
have to be more than disruptive, they have to be malicious and in addition
non-contributers. Whether or not I agree with them isn't a criterion.

The one and only person I've ever filtered from one of my lists had
contributed nothing of use. Not one single bit of help, list related nor
otherwise. Nor have I ever seen or heard of work she's done. Her ONLY posts
were deliberately inflamatory, malicious and often calculatedly insulting,
designed for no other purpose than to spread strife and conflict. She's an
extreme case though I must say, she contributed one thing. I now know what
it takes to qualify for my filter list.

It took me a few tries to effectively eliminate her from my mail. It
would've taken maybe 10 minutes had someone listed the parameters I needed
to use to effectively filter her for me. I didn't ask anyone, that wasn't a
complaint. What I didn't do however was waste bandwidth and contribute to
the flaming on the list by bitching. It wasn't and isn't MY intention to
make things worse.

Hope this is of some help.

Frosty
------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.