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From: Tom Harrington on 16 Feb 2010 11:20
In article <150220101819196150%star(a)sky.net>, Davoud <star(a)sky.net>
wrote:

> Richard Maine wrote:
> > The message is that there are test newsgroups specifically for the
> > purpose of testing newsreaders. Most notable is alt.test. It is
> > generally considered inappropriate to use regular newsgroups for such
> > tests. Doing so will usually get you responses along the general line of
> > "test failed."
>
> What does a "Test failed" response do for the respondent? Give him (it
> generally won't be a her) a sense of power and personal triumph like
> "Boy, I guess I told him, huh!?" Maybe something like the great sense
> of accomplishment some must feel after setting a troll straight?

For that matter, what does posting your message do for you? Did it give
you any of the feelings you describe?

--
Tom "Tom" Harrington
Independent Mac OS X developer since 2002
http://www.atomicbird.com/
From: Davoud on 16 Feb 2010 14:08
Richard Maine:
> > > The message is that there are test newsgroups specifically for the
> > > purpose of testing newsreaders. Most notable is alt.test. It is
> > > generally considered inappropriate to use regular newsgroups for such
> > > tests. Doing so will usually get you responses along the general line of
> > > "test failed."

Davoud:
> > What does a "Test failed" response do for the respondent? Give him (it
> > generally won't be a her) a sense of power and personal triumph like
> > "Boy, I guess I told him, huh!?" Maybe something like the great sense
> > of accomplishment some must feel after setting a troll straight?

Tom Harrington:
> For that matter, what does posting your message do for you? Did it give
> you any of the feelings you describe?

Posting did nothing for me; you missed the point. If I had received an
answer, however, I would have gained a bit of knowledge about human
behavior (perhaps "confirmed what I suspect" would be a more honest
description) in a particular situation. I'm curious to know what drives
some people to chastise and correct others over the most insignificant
things, especially when the time spent chastising is so obviously
wasted. "Setting trolls straight," telling trolls and off-topic posters
to go away, that sort of futile behavior. One might argue that my own
post was futile for not having gotten the explanation I sought, but the
lack of a direct answer and the nature of your questions did provide me
with some insights.

Davoud

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm
From: Fred Bambrough on 16 Feb 2010 14:14
In message <tzlen.170213$tq1.22283(a)en-nntp-03.dc1.easynews.com>
Scotto <srornat(a)yahoo.com> wrote:

> On 2/15/10 5:19 PM, Davoud wrote:
[snip]
> > What does a "Test failed" response do for the respondent? Give him (it
> > generally won't be a her) a sense of power and personal triumph like
> > "Boy, I guess I told him, huh!?" Maybe something like the great sense
> > of accomplishment some must feel after setting a troll straight?
> >
> > Being a net cop will always be as useful as pissing into the wind.
> >
> > Davoud
> >
>
> No problem. Lesson learned.

It was useful then. :-)

--
Fred
From: Tom Harrington on 16 Feb 2010 15:23
In article <160220101408098378%star(a)sky.net>, Davoud <star(a)sky.net>
wrote:

> Richard Maine:
> > > > The message is that there are test newsgroups specifically for the
> > > > purpose of testing newsreaders. Most notable is alt.test. It is
> > > > generally considered inappropriate to use regular newsgroups for such
> > > > tests. Doing so will usually get you responses along the general line of
> > > > "test failed."
>
> Davoud:
> > > What does a "Test failed" response do for the respondent? Give him (it
> > > generally won't be a her) a sense of power and personal triumph like
> > > "Boy, I guess I told him, huh!?" Maybe something like the great sense
> > > of accomplishment some must feel after setting a troll straight?
>
> Tom Harrington:
> > For that matter, what does posting your message do for you? Did it give
> > you any of the feelings you describe?
>
> Posting did nothing for me; you missed the point. If I had received an
> answer, however, I would have gained a bit of knowledge about human
> behavior (perhaps "confirmed what I suspect" would be a more honest
> description) in a particular situation. I'm curious to know what drives
> some people to chastise and correct others over the most insignificant
> things, especially when the time spent chastising is so obviously
> wasted.

Oh I got your point.

If you want to know what drives people to make such posts, consider your
own motives when you do the same thing, as in the message quoted above.

--
Tom "Tom" Harrington
Independent Mac OS X developer since 2002
http://www.atomicbird.com/
From: Richard Maine on 16 Feb 2010 17:11
Tom Harrington <tph(a)pcisys.no.spam.dammit.net> wrote:

> In article <160220101408098378%star(a)sky.net>, Davoud <star(a)sky.net>
> wrote:

> > Posting did nothing for me; you missed the point. If I had received an
> > answer, however, I would have gained a bit of knowledge about human
> > behavior (perhaps "confirmed what I suspect" would be a more honest
> > description) in a particular situation. I'm curious to know what drives
> > some people to chastise and correct others over the most insignificant
> > things, especially when the time spent chastising is so obviously
> > wasted.
>
> Oh I got your point.
>
> If you want to know what drives people to make such posts, consider your
> own motives when you do the same thing, as in the message quoted above.

Indeed. Note that my original post was not done in a chastising manner.
It was intentionally written to be informative, rather than chastising.
Note also that the OP specifically acknowleged that it did achieve the
intended end of informing.

On the other hand, Davoud's reply to my post was full of prejudicial
terminology and implications: suggesting that other people must be
getting "a sense of power and personal triumph"; using the term "net
cop", which is prejudicial on its face; and referring to trolls.

If he really wanted to improve his great insight into human nature, that
would probably be better achieved without such leading prejudicial
suggestions. You specifically do not phrase questions in a manner to
"confirm what I suspect" if you are honestly after unbiased information.
That's much more like what you do if you are a partisan political
pollster.

Note that he is the one who even brought up "trolls". Someone with "a
bit of knowledge about human nature" might be able to apply it to figure
out that no trolling was in evidence here... well... not before his
post.

I certainly didn't regard the OP as trolling, nor did I get the
impression that any of the other responders did. If I had regarded him
as trolling, I wouldn't have bothered to try to inform him. Pretty much
by definition, informing trolls is pointless; I am very aware of that.
They know they are trolling and are doing so intentionally. But my
obviously deficient "knowledge about human nature" was sufficient to
distinguish between trolling and what was happening here.

In contrast, I have had Davoud killfiled for a long time. Long enough
that I had forgotten why. I only read his post at all because it
responded to mine. That appears to have been a mistake on my part. Back
to my prior policy.

--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgment.
domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain
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