Pantheras wrote:

> The problem is that some one from one of the groups that are not
> interested in is eventually going to respond directly to your post in
> such a way that is does not fit in the group that you normally post to
> and then everyone is going to be unhappy. Then there is the other side
> that a flame war between two people really should be off line anyway.

I think there are a whole lot of problems here - the main ones being that
the thread was started by a crossposting troll and that, instead of ignoring
the troll, people took him seriously, and then, finally, started flaming
each other (while the original troll has either moved on or is sitting back
laughing like the retard he is).

In my experience, flame wars very rarely go offline; it seems people seek to
be vindicated in the forum the dispute began, a feeling I can understand.
It's bad enough when that forum is one newsgroup, and much worse when it's
spread across several.

I think, on reflection, it would have made sense if I and other people
posting to the thread had trimmed their headers when they *first* joined the
thread. Once one has posted and been flamed in return it's very difficult to
trim for the reasons I've given.

Still, as the sages said when asked for a phrase that would cover every
situation, "Even this will pass". ;-)

--
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com