Off Topic Posts

[Harald Hanche-Olsen]

+ "Gene Chiaramonte" <gchiaramonte at ibl.bm>:

| Please stop the madness! I can't take it anymore.

Neither can I.  Time to learn about killfiles.  You can let your
newsreader filter out (some of) the stuff you don't want, you know.

| Can the admins of this list please setup another newsgroup for posts
| regarding python language opinions?

That is not how usenet works.  There is a formal procedure for the
creation of newsgroups:  You issue a Request for Discussion in the
right fora, there is a discussion period, then a vote, and if the
motion passes, the newsgroup is created.

The exception is the alt.* hierarchy, where anybody can create groups
to their heart's content.

| Lets keep this list for people who need help USING PYTHON to solve
| real problems. [...] I worry that the constantly increasing number
| of off topic opinion type posts here has gone above a reasonable
| threshold.

Well, the problem is that discussions on the strengths and weaknesses
of Python is very much an on-topic discussion, as long as we haven't
split the group.  The problem with the whitespace thread is not that
it's off-topic, but that it goes on for too long, with the same old
arguments being repeated ad nauseam.  This kind of thing happens
regularly on all newsgroups, though more rarely here than elsewhere.
Learn to endure it, or better yet to filter it out.

| Enough already! If it's not a Python question, don't waste your time
| sending it in the first place.

Personally, I have enjoyed many posts here comparing Python with other
languages like Haskell, Common Lisp, Smalltalk etc.  I would hate to
see such discussion banished from the newsgroup.

yes-I-like-Lisp-too-ly y'rs,
-- 
* Harald Hanche-Olsen     <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- "There arises from a bad and unapt formation of words
   a wonderful obstruction to the mind."  - Francis Bacon