From: kiran@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Kiran Wagle)
Subject: Re: Kiran Wagle (Was Re: Las Vegas)
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 22:22:54 GMT

oldman@coos.dartmouth.edu (Prakash Das) opines:

>Well, er, Mr. Wagle I wonder now.... Gee, you are so interesting
>and full of knowledge, you don't hesitate to give discourses on 
>so much of the stuff that's being discussed here.

In over a year on the net,  I have seen no previous contributions from
you.  I have posted several articles that have received positive
comments, and apparently I brightened at least one person's day with
some of the posts you complained about, so i think perhaps I shall
continue.  You might consider learning about "kill" files, one can
kill (by name) all articles from a pesky, prolific, and garrulous
contributor like, f'r'instance, Dan Mocsny.  

Of course, if i had killed all of Dan's articles, I would not have met
one of my best friends (Hi Stef) but so it goes.

(Since I have mentioned kill files, I must also mention select files.
I have several people in my select file, but would never suck up to
them by publicly mentioning names....)

>Yet, according to one of your very own posts, you say that you
>wouldn't know really because you haven't been there (of course, I

Well, I certainly haven't been everywhere.  I have never had to deal
with the distribution of movie theatre seats between the parts of a
threesome, as has one of our other more prolific contributors.

>Your compulsion to respond to and post on nearly everything is what 
provides ready entertainment to us, what your great self labels, lurkers.

*laugh*  Well if it's so entertaining, what are you complaining about?
And btw, the term 'lurker' long predates me.

We have discused before whether one purpose of this group is to
provide entertainment to the 85K lurkers reading it.  It is not, IMHO.  
I understand there are many reasons both to post and to lurk but... 
I don't think "to entertain those who read but never post" is part of
the charter of this newsgroup.  (Perhaps those who have been around
longer will correct me if I'm wrong?)

(I must also say I am bothered by the notion that invisible people can
read without ever mentioning their presence.  If they are not willing
to even introduce themselves, why should I try to entertain them?)

>come wrapped in. I could go on like you do, but then us lurkers
>most often choose not to for the sake of the rest of the net folks. 

Well come on in, the water's fine.  I wonder how many lurkers choose
to refrain from posting for the sake of the rest of the net.

Survey time! Hey lurkers, why do you lurk? 

>PS: BTW, MaX has already informed me, so I see that you don't
>even practise what you mouth out....

*laugh*  "mouth out", eh? 

As MaX and others can tell you, I am not female, and I try as hard as
possible to trim >included text, and suggest that others do the same.
PS thanks MaX.

>Yes, lurkers can be fun sometimes, but prolific posters never are.

Well, as you probably already know, there are several tools for
avoiding  me.  The simplest is to unsubscribe from the group.  Then
there is the kill file, which can kill articles by subject, name or
combinations, depending on the software.  There are threaded
newsreaders which allow you to read only the _threads_ (not subjects)
that interest you, so if you do not want to follow all of the
discussions under a single subject you don't have to.  There are
newsreaders which allow you to choose articles before you read any of
them (my reader of choice is nn.)  

But I would rather you post your thoughts, ideas, opinions when you
feel they might help someone, or brighten someone's day.  Send email
to people whose posts you enjoyed (a compliment is always welcome.)
Go to a Boink, organise one even.  In short: participate!

-- 
 From the corrections column in a July Fresno, CA _Bee_:

"An item in Thursday's [issue] about the Massachusetts budget crisis
 made reference to new taxes that will help put Massachusetts 
'back in the African-American.' The item should have said 'back in 
 the black.'"
-- 
Kiran Wagle                             <kiran@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
P.O.Box 2083 Bloomington IN 47402-2083                  (812) 335-0420
Newsgroups: soc.singles