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G4EBT > ALL 30.07.09 17:30l 130 Lines 4942 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 530934G4EBT
Read: GUEST
Subj: Re: TO: G6XCJ and G4EBT
Path: IZ3LSV<IQ3GO<SR1BSZ<SP7MGD<ON0BEL<GB7FCR
Sent: 090730/1516Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:30155 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:530934G4
From: G4EBT@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : ALL@WW
Peter, VE3WBZ wrote:-
> Hello David G4EBT and Roger G6XCJ.,
> Just noted gentlemen, that your postings address @GBR and
> also @FRA.EU are being sent to everyone, like @WW ...
> Thought you both would like to know ....
Thanks for that Peter.
It comes as no surprise.
GBR is GBR - not WW.
But as there's so little traffic on packet, some sysops disregard
the wishes of originators and for years have sent GBR bulls to WW.
It's why - until May this year - however irrelevant they were to the rest
of the world, I sent all my bulls to ww. That way, the decision was mine
as to where they ended up.
But I became so appalled at the name calling, false and defamatory
statements, xenophobic comments and trivialisation of serious topics,
on which I believe I'd written about in a sensible way, that from May
I decided to stop posting to WW and to not respond to any ww bulls,
hoping my wishes for my bulls to stay in GB would be respected.
Everyone who follows packet knows the history.
The few who engage in disruptive behaviour, and who taunt, goad, coin
and use offensive nicknames, and not just invite, but incite, adversarial
responses contrary to the terms of their licence, their ISP and the laws
on defamation, think they're completely normal, so it's no good appealing
to their better nature - they don't have one.
In truth they're attention-seeking sociopathic delinquents, and are the
kiss of death to packet. The most surreal aspect is that some actually
think they're guiding lights of the "ham spirit" for us lesser mortals
to follow, but wouldn't last an hour on a moderated internet forum.
It's inconceivable that an amateur would invite another into his shack to
use his station to hurl abuse and make false and defamatory statement over
the air (where words are at least lost on the wind). Then invite him back
again as often as the abuser wished, at a time of his own choosing, to do
the same thing over and over again.
So quite why sysops allow a few users to do this on packet, where words
are committed to print, spread all over internet and end up as an audit
trail on hard drives, to implicate not just the writer (as the author) but
the sysop (jointly and severally liable as the "publisher"), is beyond me.
But some do - perhaps out a desire to not be labelled "packet policemen"
or to be seen as too censorial. Packet then takes on the ethos of an
unmoderated internet forum where anything goes, which is what it's become.
IMHO packet has become a byword for trivial banter, and once something has
been "dumbed down" - be it CB or packet, it can never be "dumbed up"
again.
The result has been a steady migration from packet, fewer bulls, fewer
users, users who only want to read bulls but rarely write any, (packet
"SWLs") the closure of yet more BBSs due to lack of use and lack of users,
and a greater reliance on telnet.
And still the trolls keep trolling along.
Just my take on things - I don't mind if others see it differently.
I'm stating an opinion, not inviting a a debate, less still an argument.
If I don't send bulls to WW I can be sure I'm not part of the problem and
am not feeding the trolls. But if bulls I send to GBR go to WW anyway, the
only way to be sure they don't go where I don't want them to, is to not
post any at all - not even to GBR.
I'll accept the invitation of one on here to "STFU".
That way, it puts me back in the driving seat.
It's a shame it's come to that, but it's a well-trodden path.
There isn't a close fit between what interests me and what seems to
interest others on here, so it all becomes a bit pointless anyway.
Most of the topics that interest me and about which I've written
are seen as many as deadly dull, and I've compounded that by writing
about them at length.
Yes, I admit that of the last 300 bulls I've written, 1 in 7 have been
6k+, equal to a page of a downscale tabloid newspaper. Heaven forfend that
I start catering for Daily Mail readers!
According to Ofcom, more than 11,000 (M3) Foundation licences have been
issued to newcomers since 2005. Not a single one have appeared on packet.
Not good news for packet, but perhaps that's no bad thing, given the
derision that's been heaped upon them, even though the Foundation Licence
is now the mandatory entry point which we'd all have to go through were we
new to the hobby.
Thanks to anyone who's read my wordy bulls and occasionally found them
interesting. Enjoy packet chaps and chapesses - what's left of it.
We get the hobby we deserve.
Quote of the day:
"Farewell"
"Farewell the tranquil mind; farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars
That make ambition virtue!"
William Shakespeare, 1564-1616)
Best wishes
David, G4EBT @ GB7FCR
Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
Message timed: 15:52 on 2009-Jul-30
Message sent using WinPack-Telnet V6.70
(Registered).
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