32. I'm sick of certain topics on s.s.b-b. How can I avoid them? Also,what's with all these ads?
Description
This article is from the Bondage FAQ, by numerous contributors.
32. I'm sick of certain topics on s.s.b-b. How can I avoid them? Also,what's with all these ads?
s.s.b-b, like all Usenet groups, has its share of flame wars. Many of
them revolve around questions of whether particular BDSM activities are
healthy or not (the usual answer: "They're risky, but it's possible to
do them safely and beneficially, and many people do"), or whether
soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm is a heterosexist group or not (I'm not
gonna tackle _that_ one here, yet). One common feature of all, though,
is that some people get burned out on reading all the hundreds of
articles in the thread. The solution? Most newsreading programs support
a tool called a "kill file", which is a list of subjects and/or authors
that you are NOT interested in and never want to look at. Different
newsreaders have different ways of using killfiles. I use rn, so my
example will refer to it. (If you use a different program, see the
documentation for that program. To add a particular subject (say, "FAQ
List") to your killfile in rn, go to soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm When
you are reading the group, type ^K (control-K). This will put you into
an editor which is editing your killfile for
soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm. Type the following: /FAQ List/h:j
then exit your editor. What that line says is "junk any articles which
contain the text `FAQ List' in the header." Replace "FAQ List" with the
subject you dislike or the user ID of the person you no longer wish to
read, and presto, your blood pressure will be much happier.
I've been told the following about the "gnus" newsreader:
In gnus, from the subject buffer, on an article from the person you
wish to kill: type meta-k [gnus-Subject-edit-local-kill], C-c C-k C-a [gnus-Kill-file-kill-by-author],
C-c C-a [gnus-Kill-file-apply-buffer], C-c C-c [gnus-Kill-file-exit]."
"C-a" stands for "control-A", and "meta-k"
stands for "escape-K." The text in brackets isn't stuff you should
type; it's just explanation of what each set of keystrokes means.
If you use nn, track down a post written by the victim to be killfiled,
and just hit 'K' (capital-K). Follow the somewhat cryptic prompts, and
respond according to your needs. For example: nn gives you
you respond
------------ -----------
AUTO (k)ill or (s)elect [...] k
AUTO KILL on (s)ubject or (n)ame [...] n
KILL Name: (=/) /
KILL Name (regexp): FAQ List
KILL in (g)roup 'soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm' or
in (a)ll groups a
Lifetime of entry in days (p)ermanent [...] p [or 21915 to 25568]
CONFIRM KILL Name perm regexp: FAQ List y
If you use tin, you can either hand-edit .tin/kill (instructions should
be given in that file), or you can hit control-K while reading any
article. This will toss a nice menu on the screen. Just follow the
prompts. For example:
tin gives you you respond
------------- -----------
Kill type: Kill [return/enter]
Kill text pattern: FAQ List [return/enter]
Apply pattern to: [spacebar until "Subject: & From: lines" appears, then hit return]
Kill Subject [...]: No [return/enter]
Kill From [...]: No [return/enter]
Kill pattern scope: [spacebar until appropriate choice appears, then return]
Two pieces of jargon related to kill files: Sometimes you will see
someone responding to something egregiously stupid (in the responder's
opinion) said by someone else. The response may look like, "Ho, hum.
Plonk. " What is plonk? Plonk is the sound of someone being dropped
into a kill file; the respondent is announcing that they are
permanently killfiling the original poster. Other times, a poster may
be annoying lots and lots of people on s.s.b-b, and someone will post
something like "Everyone PISS on this guy!" PISS stands for Passive
Ignorance Silence Strike, and basically means that everyone should just
ignore the poster, rather than arguing and/or flaming. The idea is that
if the person can't get a rise out of anyone, they will get bored and
leave. It very often works, too... or at least it reduces the wasted
bandwidth. What about the ads? Here, sadly, I don't have much
worthwhile help for you. Usenet as a medium is exceptionally vulnerable
to swine who think the whole world has to know about what they have to
sell, whether or not it has to do with the group it's being posted to.
Hopefully someday there will be a good set of solutions which will make
it easy to ignore the junk mail on Usenet. I remember back in the late
1980s, when the wider world hadn't yet found the Internet, and when
almost every post on s.s.b-b actually had something to do with some
actual person's experience with sex or bondage. Ah, the good old
days... and they will return again once the spam problem is dealt with!
For now, just get good newsreading software that lets you skim over
many ads to read the few good posts, and grin and bear it.
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