RE: [OT] Bickering

["Mark Hetherington" <mark.egroups@xxxxxxx>]

> I tried to support the creation of uk.tech.home-automation but made
the
> mistake of replying via a web based news reader. I dont know if I
clicked
> the wrong link or if it was the fault of the web interface, but my
reply
> went to the wrong newsgroup which was for announcements only. I
alomost
> instantly got jumped on by the Usenet police chastising me for doing
the
> wrong thing.

[snip]
To be honest I think you merely triggered the "standard letter".
That
particular group has no way of posting other than via 'control' and IIRC
requests to post will result in you recieving that message along with a
copy
going to the moderator for the group so he can check for spammers. This
then
leads to spam announcements and other stuff. It may be an impersonal
response, but you probably made history by explaining your mistake... hehe.

Having been through the creation of UKHA so subscribed to all the
"right"
places... I really hate the whole running of hierarchy. I don't know the
complete history, but a number of the people involved seem purely there to
excercise what little bit of power it gives them.

> Since the formation of uk.tech.home-automation I have read the posts
and
> occasionally replied but I have noticed that it seems to suffer from
the
> same sort of bickering as c.h.a although to a lesser degree at the
moment.

Not really noticed anything myself from a general perspective...

> The latest cause of disagreement seems to be someone wanting to sell a
few
> X10 modules which to my mind is perfectly relevant to the newsgroup.

.... but wrt that, I can't agree with you more. Originally I thought Claire
a
useful ally since she acheived what I and others had failed in the past in
getting the group created, but being part of "the management"
seems to now
be turning against the group. Should I get time, I will have to add my own
comments to that argument, especially given a post asking about advertising
a few days before that guys with his properly formatted message to which
noone responded except for one response suggesting it would be OK!

Incidentally, I may be wrong, but assuming this is where I recognise the
name from, it appears the actual on/off charter thing was started by one of
the ukha_d peeps... hehe.

Nobody seems to have said anything against Mark "advertising" the
list on
there. Often in Usenet such responses are along the lines of the anti forum
reasoning for here. If it ain't broke don't fix it type arguments along
with
been there, done that, didn't work. But it did not generate anything
adverse
so I think on the whole, it has not attracted too many anti everything
people.

* Note to Mark McCall in case I forget to email... that record of 100
messages a day thing is *so* wrong, I have it at over 250 for a few days on
the run so maybe time to review that :)

> Is it my imagination or are most Usenet groups like that.... or

Personally, I find very few Usenet groups that I use have the problems you
describe here. What I do find, is that most have a central group who often
come across as ignorant to others. But this is the case in most walks of
life and with the right approach, you can get by the initial "everyone
goes
quiet when you walk into the bar" attitude. I guess it depends where
you go
of course, but I don't tend to stick around anywhere where things seem more
about flames than discussion.

> is it that I
> have been spoilt by the warm and friendly community that we have here.
I

This group is often subject to the bar and silence analogy I outline above.
I think the main difference is when you have been part of a group for a
long
time, you tend to not notice things as much. There is nothing especially
vindictive about it, it just happens. It has been brought up on the list
form time to time.

I have to admit, that due to work being so hectic I haven't had time to
post
to the new group much at all, but I do try and keep up and I am always glad
to see posts from ukha_d peeps.

I had been a little disappointed about the lack of discussion on the
group... which makes the whole anti-FS thread that much worse especially so
early in it's life. But there is no core group there yet, so there is hope
:)

> like UKHA_D and long may it remain as it is...THE place for UK Home
> Automation discussion (and a few OT threads)

LOL. I thought I had been kicked out of here when my mail server emailed me
to say "is everything OK, you have less than 3 figures of email to
deliver
today!"... but just seems that Yahoo decided to turn itself off for 24
hours
:)

Mark.
(possibly Aaron depending on the take up of the Mark Harrison's proposal)
:)