> > At 15:58 2009-10-12, Michael Madigan <[email protected]> wrote: > >It's amazing that skilled programmers can't set filters. > > Actually, it is very easy. The problem is that some of the > [OT] material is of interest. That is why I suggested that Ed create > a [USP] tag for U.S. politics.
I don't mind voluntarily appending [USP] to [OT] whenever it's only about US Politics, for those people closed-minded enough to want to filter that out. It doesn't take an edict from Ed to achieve this. Let's just agree on a taxonomy of off topic posts. I for one would like to filter out Australia and Argentina. ;) Again, my purpose is not and never has been to disrupt the educational endeavors of legitimate ProFox folks, or to be a burden on anyone who thinks I'm a boogeyman. I just enjoy the OT banter, it's really the only list where I feel as comfortable as I do hemming and hawing about stuff, sharing my honest views. I don't mind adding sub-categories to OT to help people select the posts that actually interest them. That said. I only resent two things from folks who like to dip their tippy toes in OT water but then act like there are sharks who might gobble them up if they wade in: 1. False piousness. Ed is the main offender here, but by no means the only. He likes to act like he's never in his life lit a flame on OT, or said anything rude, or posted mindless drivel, or otherwise acted like a jerk. We *do* have the archives.... These phonies like to pretend the line of demarcation between "us" (the good posters) and "them" (the trolls) is intelligence. Spare me! Spare yourself! 2. Selective outrage. I agree I get into vain disputes and occasionally cross lines of civility, the OT equivalent of a bar fight I guess. Guilty. No excuse. But (a mitigating factor I hope) only with folks who go the distance with me...and only when I know they have skulls thick enough to absorb the impact. My good friends Ricardo and Geoff come to mind. :) But I note the outrage is always about me, Mike or Pete, and never about Ricardo, Geoff, or even Ed---all three of whom have their own trademark brands of mocking and insulting people. Ed, OK, he's the maintainer of the list, we all more or less have to kiss his gluteus. But singling out Mike (as so many do), who (as Pete points out) has his "brand" of posting so to speak, and actually when you get past the crusty one-liners is just as flesh-and-blood as the rest of us, a complex person with an interesting life story (just like Ed, Geoff and Ricardo for that matter), seems, well, disingenuous. Obviously, folks who lean left-of-center (whatever "center" is) hate me, Mike and Pete (though in Comrade Pete's case I think they occasionally engage in friendly fire ;) ), and folks who lean the other way are usually tolerant of us. The Indignant Ones act like the three of us are some kind of three-in-one unholy trinity, whereas if you pay attention to what we say, you'll realize we have vastly different opinions on quite a few things, and we appreciate each other's differences (even when Mike is calling me a moron for not agreeing that Obama is "the" Anti-Christ, or I'm tagging Comrade Pete for his Trotskyite views on executive compensation). Anyway. :) I think everyone overreacting to "the tone of debate" is actually inwardly recoiling at their own hypocrisy. If all of us posted only rants they agreed with, after the manner of open-minded civility embodied in distinguished philosophers like Jon Stuart or Bill Maher or Michael Moore (Ed's favorite sources of illumination when he was still tippy-toeing in---now he merely surfs on the backs of posts of people he hasn't twitted out), why, this forum would be the epitome of goodness, truth and democratic participation, for those currently whining about the way "some of us" express our opinions. We all love freedom of speech until someone speaks freely, or "our side" is in power. Then we act like merely penning a zinger is a crime against the state---too horrible for innocent eyes to behold. Oh help us, benevolent Nanny State! Protect me from these awful words! Too funny! And kinda sad. - Bob > > Mr. Madigan, how about you set a filter? The type I am > thinking of is one where you think twice about sending posts that > contain insulting or inflammatory language and never do send them after > all. > > [snip] > > Sincerely, > > Gene Wirchenko _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
