From: zerkle@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Aaaaaack!  Take it to advocacy!
Date: 18 Aug 92 07:03:42 GMT
Reply-To: zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of California, Davis

Gentlemen and Ladies:

In days gone by, a fine citizen of Usenet (now departed thence, as far
as I can tell) by the name of Dolan blessed us by masterminding the
comp.sys.amiga grand re-organization.  From dark, he brought light.
From ignorance, truth.  From beaches, itchy sand in his shorts.

Though many would argue, perhaps Mr. Dolan's greatest contribution
(and he wouldn't quit with his his damned contributing) was the addition
of comp.sys.amiga.advocacy.  With the creation of this sewer, the
refuse of the comp.sys.amiga heirarchy could be flushed, and only
those whou wished plumbed therein.  The other groups were cleansed of
such idiocy as "my computer is better than yours, nyah, nyah," and
"those idiots in Commodore marketing couldn't sell money at a
discount," and "shut up, Marc!"  Thusly, there was thenceforce
peace forthwith.

Or so it seemed....

For, in the pits of darkness, a shadow lurked.  It grew stronger.
It chuckled nasty little chuckles about what it would do with Vanna
White if it ever found her with two small albino beagles.  It fed on
carelessness, haste, and ignorance.  Yes, it was...


****************  THE MISPLACED THREAD!!!  *******************

Wreaking havoc wherever it tread, spreading through innocent
newsgroups, breaking through the frail walls of
comp.sys.amiga.advocacy, it took up bandwidth, annoyed users, and
threatened to destroy the whole noble purpose of the Grand Reorganization
by crossposting the Net into oblivion.

The righteous users quickly sprang into action, with their battle cry
of "killfile, killfile!"  The scourge was beaten back!  But it
wouldn't die.  A tenuous balance held while the battle raged.

Who then, should appear?  Into the midst of the inappropriate
crossposting to .advocacy sprang COMMODORE EMPLOYEES!  Surely these
brave, noble developers, admired by lots of people (well, some on
Usenet, and of course their mothers) would save the day!  But no!
They crossposted between .advocacy and .misc as well!  Held in thrall
by the dark, beastly Thread, they fed the monster.  It grew mightily,
until it threatened to envelop other groups --
comp.sys.amiga.datacomm, rec.games.hack, and
alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork.  It burped.  A really smelly burp.
Farted, too.

Is there no help?  Can nobody save the innocent newsgroups in
distress?  Are they forever doomed to reading comparisons to PC, the
Mac, the ST, and the 99/4A?  Will no hero save them?

Yes.  There is one who dares to challenge the monster.  There he is
now!  It's a user!  It's an admin!  No!  It's ....





********************  AN ANNOYED MODERATOR!!  **********************



Damn, I've been reading too many fantasy books lately.

Look, people:  Some topics just don't belong anywhere but the .misc
group.  Crossposting to the .advocacy group is a bad idea.  It
generates big piles of posts that a lot of people just don't feel like
reading.  However, there is something you can do about it.

First, don't crosspost.  If you start a thread, put only the .advocacy
group in the header.

Second, redirect follow-ups to .advocacy.  This is fairly simple.
Just put a line in your header like this:

Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy

This way, even if your post is cross-posted, anyone who follows up to
your post will send responses only to the .advocacy group.  This post
is set up that way.

Here's a hint:  If your post contains any of the following phrases, it
belongs in .advocacy, and should not be posted anywhere else:

"... really sucks"

"Commodore Marketing"

"Marc Barrett"

"... technology is way behind ..."

"... is obviously better than ..."

"new chip set"

"Bahamas"

"cheap '486 clone"

... and so forth.

I really should pay more attention to Usenet.  I wander away from the
unmoderated groups for a couple months, and everything gets sloppy.

Grouch grouch grouch.  You people know better.  If it's an advocacy
post, put it there.  If you're following up to something in .advocacy,
make sure you check the Newsgroups: line, and don't cross-post it
anywhere else.  It's really not that hard!

--
Dan Zerkle  zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu dz@stl.panasonic.com (805) 687-0110 968-1738
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy