The Importance of Terminology's Quality

[szr]

Peter Duniho wrote:
> On Sat, 31 May 2008 23:27:35 -0700, szr <szrRE at szromanMO.comVE> wrote:
>
>> [...]
>>> But the subthread Lew commente don was about Perl and Unix. That is
>>> clearly off topic.
>>
>> I agree with and understand what you are saying in general, but
>> still, isn't it possible that were are people in the java group (and
>> others) who might of been following the thread, only to discover
>> (probably not right away) that someone decided to remove the group
>> they were reading the thread from? I know I would not like that,
>> even if it wasn't on topic at the branch.
>
> All due respect, I don't really care if those people find the thread
> gone.  And no one should.

I prefer to be considerate of others.

> Each individual person has a wide variety of interests.  A thread
> that is off-topic in a newsgroup may in fact be concerning a topic of
> interest for someone who just happened to be reading that newsgroup.

Well if a thread has absolutely no relation to a group, then yes, 
cross-posting to said group is inappropiate, and setting follow ups may 
well be warrented. But when there is some relation, sometimes it may be 
better to mark it as [OT] i nthe subject line, a practice that is 
sometimes seen, and seems to suffice.

> What if someone cross-posted a thread about motorcycle racing in the
> Perl newsgroup as well as an actual motorcycle racing newsgroup?

You are comparing apples and oranges now; sure, if you post about 
motorcycles (to use your example) it would be wildly off topic, but the 
thread in question was relating to programming (the naming of functions 
and such) in general.

> Does that justify the thread continuing to be cross-posted to the Perl
> newsgroup?  No, of course not.

but who decides this? And why does said individual get to decide for 
everyone?

> So please.  Quit trying to justify a thread being cross-posted to a
> newsgroup that you aren't even reading

You do not know what groups I read. And I am not attempting to justify 
cross posting at all. Rather I am arguing against deciding for a whole 
news group when a thread should be discontinued.

-- 
szr