(was Re: Xah's Edu Corner: Criticism vs Constructive Criticism)

[Tagore Smith]

John Bokma wrote:
> "Tagore Smith" <tagore at tagoresmith.com> wrote:
>
> > It's much easier to use a killfile than to complain to an ISP, and I
> > think that that should be the preferred response to messages you don't
> > like.
>
> No, since even if you kill file Xah Lee, he keeps wasting resources of
> people who have dedicated equipment to support Usenet.

Your responses are at least as wasteful (as are my responses to you,
and as are most of the posts made to Usenet). Your emails to his ISP
are far more wasteful- you are using up very scarce resources dedicated
to dealing with real abuse. Those resources are in much shorter supply
than the resources dedicated to propagating Usenet posts.

The only thing really wrong with Xah's post is that it was crossposted
to several groups. But your objection seems to be less about the
crossposting, and more about the content. Usenet is not, for the most
part, moderated. If you want to control the content of what you read, I
suggest that you start a blog, where you can ban comments you don't
like, to your heart's content.

> > Complaints to ISPs should be reserved for egregious abuse of the
> > Usenet infrastructure.
>
> I consider this abuse, and since the reports are taken serious atm, it
> looks like the ISP / USP / hosting provider *agree* with my POV.

Again, the only thing abusive about Xah's post is that he crossposted
it. That you don't like/understand it does not make it abuse. If you
were only complaining about the crossposting I would be on your side.

> It's their call anyway.
>
> Maybe you like to look away when someone throws garbage on the street,
> thinking: who cares, it will be cleaned away by the end of the week.

No, if I liked to look away from that I wouldn't bother responding to
you.

> don't like the sight of it, and also know that some garbage ends up in the
> sewer system, causing all kinds of problems.

Your response is far more damaging than anything Xah has done. Usenet
has, traditionally, been a "not very friendly zone". All kinds of
things get posted. Some of them piss me off. I don't go crying to
people's ISPs when they post messages I disagree with. Again, if you
want to control what gets posted, start a blog.