Why does this group have such long threads?

On Sat, 02 Oct 2004 11:05:33 GMT, "Andy" <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

Quoted message said:

I wish I knew what I had done to upset you. I guess now I'll never
find out.

Quoted message said:

Posting a load of [censored] would be my guess from Sandy's statement :-)

Define [censored], though.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

On Sat, 2 Oct 2004 12:08:51 +0100, Mark McN
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

I *was* wondering if I should wear a h*lm*t while riding my Al-framed
Goldwing 5 miles to the station - can anyone advise? [N.B. Memo to self:
x-post to all other ngs on this server]

Heh! Well there you have it.

Mind you, it's not just one or two enormous crossposted threads, there
seem to be a lot of longish threads at present. This NG has more
active participants than any other I subscribe to, I think.

I suppose any newsgroup would be quieter if it contained only people
who agree on everything :-)

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

"Ambrose Nankivell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

In news:[email hidden],
Just zis Guy, you know? <[email hidden]> typed:

Quoted message said:

On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 23:14:36 +0100, Sandy Morton <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

Your postings are normally a load of [censored] - similar to this one.

I wish I knew what I had done to upset you. I guess now I'll never
find out.

Blimey, haven't seen this sort of thing since the campervan episode.

Quoted message said:

I imagine he's just frustrated at the huge amount of traffic on this group
over the past few weeks. Leave it for a week and there'll be 2000 posts to
pile through.

A

It's not mandatory though.

Toby

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

In news:[email hidden],
Just zis Guy, you know? <[email hidden]> typed:

Quoted message said:

On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 23:14:36 +0100, Sandy Morton <[email hidden]>

wrote in message : said:

Your postings are normally a load of [censored] - similar to this one.

I wish I knew what I had done to upset you. I guess now I'll never
find out.

I imagine he's just frustrated at the huge amount of traffic on this group
over the past few weeks. Leave it for a week and there'll be 2000 posts to
pile through.

I plonk all the threads where there is a lot of heat but not much
light and cross-posted threads. This cuts quite a lot of the
traffic. There is no obligation to read everything.

Juliette
--

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I wish I knew what I had done to upset you. I guess now I'll never
find out.

I wouldn't pick out any one individual for criticism but if I can take the
liberty of generalising Sandy's sentiments:

There is a lot of very useful/informative stuff on this newsgroup; there is
something for everybody whether they are new to cycling or are hardened
pedallers. But, the good stuff is becoming obscured by all the drivel
(impossible to quantify this, I know, and it is all very subjective).

Two examples of the kind of thing I (personally) am not keen on reading:
1) Computer-techie stuff. I get the impression that quite a few of the
regulars are involved in IT some way but opinions about whether this
operating system is better than that one or what is the accepted protocol
for naming internet domains aren't really appropriate here.
2) In-jokes. The people who are in on the joke presumably find it
funny/entertaining but why subject the rest of the newgroup subscribers to
it?

Ian

Ambrose Nankivell said:

I imagine he's just frustrated at the huge amount of traffic on this group
over the past few weeks. Leave it for a week and there'll be 2000 posts to
pile through.

You're not obliged to read them all, you know.

d.

Ambrose Nankivell said:

I imagine he's just frustrated at the huge amount of traffic on this group
over the past few weeks. Leave it for a week and there'll be 2000 posts to
pile through.

Or do as I do, mark them all as read and carry on from there. Its not
mandatory to read all the posts. These days I rarely read many threads,
just skimming through the headers to see if anything catches my attention.

Just my $0.02 contribution to a lengthening thread

Tony

" [Not Responding] " <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Guy is a consistently constructive poster. Sandy has always been a
reasoned and reasonable poster. Guy posts an innocuous post in an
innocuous thread and Sandy posts this in response and buggers off.

Have I missed something somewhere?

This sort of thing doesn't happen in urc. Well, not often.

Not since the last time I buggered off anyway ;-)Who am I going to
send all of these cans of Plus Gas to now Sandy's gone?
--
Simon M.

wheelsgoround vaguely muttered something like ...

Quoted message said:

Two examples of the kind of thing I (personally) am not keen on reading:
1) Computer-techie stuff. I get the impression that quite a few of the
regulars are involved in IT some way but opinions about whether this
operating system is better than that one or what is the accepted protocol
for naming internet domains aren't really appropriate here.

But a discussion in a pub, say, also goes off tangent where one minute you
may be discussing the latest celebrity, and the next minute it's Liverpool
football club .. the same happens on Usenet. I think in reality many of the
'drivel' type threads are posters who 'know' and trust each other and just
like a banter with like-minded people about anything. And why not? They're
all (possibly) still cyclists and prefer another cyclist to comment on
'stuff, and many of those threads are subjected as OT ... 😉

Quoted message said:

2) In-jokes. The people who are in on the joke presumably find it
funny/entertaining but why subject the rest of the newgroup subscribers to
it?

Why not ? Who cares if you're 'in' or not ? If you're not in, would you
want to be anyway ? If you are in, why ?

Anyone has the option to not read any of the articles in any newsgroup .. I
don't think anyone should try to stop people corresponding with people,
whatever the means.

--
Paul ...

(8(|) Homer Rules !!!

"A [censored] is a [censored], no matter what mode of transport they're using."

Just zis Guy, you know? [email hidden] opined the following...

Quoted message said:

I suppose any newsgroup would be quieter if it contained only people
who agree on everything :-)

Not necessarily!

Jon

"Ambrose Nankivell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I imagine he's just frustrated at the huge amount of traffic on this group
over the past few weeks. Leave it for a week and there'll be 2000 posts to
pile through.

Well I've just come back online after a weeks holiday in Remotesville and
can attest to the large number of new posts piled up in that time. There was
also a large pile of mail by the front door, but you know what? In both
cases I shall use my powers of discretion to decide which ones I'll read
immediately, which ones I'll reply to, which ones I may read later if it
carries on raining and which ones I'll ignore.
It ain't really difficult, in fact it's so simple that I may decide to buy a
Sunday paper and will also be selective about which parts of it's content
I'll read, which parts I'll nod my head in agreement with and which parts I
may rant about to SWMBO :-)

Pete

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I suppose any newsgroup would be quieter if it contained only people
who agree on everything :-)

Or people with little to say.

Pete

"Peter B" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Well I've just come back online after a weeks holiday in Remotesville and
can attest to the large number of new posts piled up in that time. There

was

Quoted message said:

also a large pile of mail by the front door, but you know what? In both
cases I shall use my powers of discretion to decide which ones I'll read
immediately, which ones I'll reply to, which ones I may read later if it
carries on raining and which ones I'll ignore.

But obviously not which ones you don't need to reply to because at least 4
other people have already said exactly the same thing.

"AndyP" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Peter B" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Well I've just come back online after a weeks holiday in Remotesville

and

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

can attest to the large number of new posts piled up in that time. There

was

Quoted message said:

also a large pile of mail by the front door, but you know what? In both
cases I shall use my powers of discretion to decide which ones I'll read
immediately, which ones I'll reply to, which ones I may read later if it
carries on raining and which ones I'll ignore.

But obviously not which ones you don't need to reply to because at least 4
other people have already said exactly the same thing.

Not neccessarily, I may reply as well to support a viewpoint already
expressed or just to vent my spleen.
In this case to me it was quite obvious that no one is obliged to read all
posts but not obvious to those who whinge about unneccessary posts so maybe
a lot of us have to state the obvious in an attempt to make it clear to
those who obviously can't spot the obvious.
Anyway, you've added to the thread and are therefore as guilty as the
next......now, about my bike, should I re-fit the mudguards or just add
floats?

Pete

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 07:22:07 +0000 (UTC), "Peter B"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I suppose any newsgroup would be quieter if it contained only people
who agree on everything :-)

Quoted message said:

Or people with little to say.

True enough. Maybe Sandy needs uk.zen.cycling?

Between 11pm last night when I packed up and 3:15 this arbo when I
signed on again there were just under 150 new messages, more than for
any other NG to which I subscribe. But as I said before, this group
appears to have more active participants. I like that, there is a lot
to read and much of it interesting and/or amusing. I kill threads
which are of no interest, and shamelessly skim ones which are of
peripheral interest only. I read a greater proportion of posts in urc
than in any other NG, including the Shed.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 09:51:30 +0100, "AndyP"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

But obviously not which ones you don't need to reply to because at least 4
other people have already said exactly the same thing.

But not in the same words, that's the important thing. Pete's post
made me laugh (specifically the bit about ranting to SWMBO - I do that
too!).

Is that not of value in itself?

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 10:26:27 +0000 (UTC), "Peter B"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

about my bike, should I re-fit the mudguards or just add floats?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/boating/2001/7/hullfire/

Seems a straightforward choice to me :-)

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

Just zis Guy said:

True enough. Maybe Sandy needs uk.zen.cycling?

If you post in a newsgroup and there's no-one there to read it does it
still start a thread?

Tony

"People say I have the body of a God, what a pity its Buddha"

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 09:51:30 +0100, "AndyP"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

But obviously not which ones you don't need to reply to because at least 4
other people have already said exactly the same thing.

But not in the same words, that's the important thing. Pete's post
made me laugh (specifically the bit about ranting to SWMBO - I do that
too!).

Even if they did use exactly the same words there's also the
matter of article propagation, just because one person's server
has delivered 4 responses doesn't mean that A.N.Other's has. I've
always viewed multiple similar answers to one question as an
inherent feature of Usenet.

Juliette
--

Tony Raven said:

If you post in a newsgroup and there's no-one there to read it does
it still start a thread?

That depends on whether it's hanging or standing.

regards, Ian SMith
--
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