Excerpts from mail.fanfic: 24-Apr-96 Re: [FanFic] Overreactions by Kent
Magami@hsonline.net 

Feeling rather down tonight, I mentioned on IRC that "I hope the sig war
gets killed on the FFML".  The reactions, or rather, overreactions, I got
were none too pleasant.  After explaining that I'd sent a message to the
list in general, calling for at least a toning down of the sig war and
related spam, a couple of very vociferous complainers hammered at me with
things along the lines of:

   I would like to on record as saying that I was one of those complainers
Damon quotes below.  I would like to apologize to Damon for getting so hot
under the collar.  I had been depressed earlier in the day, the sigging we
were doing had finally cheered me up, and your little announcement slammed
me right back into depression again.  Having calmed down somewhat and
having read this post through, I begin to understand more of what you were
driving at.  Comments follow.

Thanks for understanding.  I'm glad I didn't make an enemy, then.

"I like the fanfics!  I like the spam!  It's what made the FFML fun!"

   This was my quote.  (Damon, I was A-ko there--I had neglected to return
to my usual nickname.)

Okay.

   [Other quotes snipped.]

I'll address each of these in turn.

Why not just delete the spam.

There are several reasons.  First of all, I'm not complaining about spam
in general.  I'm complaining about volume.  By that, I don't mean the
size of the posts, I mean the *amount* of them.  If I can't even read all
of the mail I'm getting because 90% of it is spam, and I'm forced to
delete most of it *without* reading it, I stand a pretty fair chance of
deleting some important stuff by accident.  I've done this several times
recently.

   I usually read the first few lines, at least, to see if it's worth
continuing.  Then I delete it.

I've been *trying* to do that, but I never seem to have the time.  I'm
very busy with both work and school to occupy my time.  I hope no one else
is as time-crunched as I am, but I have the feeling that there are a few
of them out there.  Since I am hopefully in the minority, I can deal with
the amount of mail I'm receiving.  I'd rather not have to, but I can if
it's necessary.

At this point, I should ask WWolf how many people we *do* have on the
list, so I can get a feel of whether this last burst of spam is because
of the size of the FFML population, or because people are getting carried
away.

WWolf made it clear back when we had the "belt war competition", as one
poster so eloquently put it, over the posting stats, that that amount of
spamming "better not happen".  I have to agree, and I'm forced to admit
that what we have right now is that level of spamming.  There are several
different offending topics, along with a general tendency to spam, but
I'm not going to point any fingers.  I'm going to ask, POLITELY, like
WWolf did, that you guys keep it under control.  I'm not out to make
enemies (as it seems I have, unfortunately),

   No, not enemies.  I was upset, and reacted harshly (perhaps), but I
hardly think that makes us enemies.

Okay, glad to hear that.  Firehawke, on the other hand, seemed to take
it a lot worse than you did, for which I'm saddened.

I'm out to have fun, like the rest of you.  That brings me to the next
comment.

"I like the fanfics!  I like the spam.  It's what made the ML fun!"

Yes, I agree.  A lot of the early chatter on the ML was spam.  But you
also have to consider, we had about a third of the people we do now.
Back then, half of the ML spamming was still manageable, and could be
reasonably read without having to resort to holding down the delete key.
It might not have been pleasant for some, but it was manageable.  Now
however, we have a lot more people here, and hence a lot more spam.
When WWolf had to move the list from the server at his work to his home
machine, it wasn't because his boss was being vindictive.  It was for a
reason.  All that spam took up a lot of bandwidth, and it was starting
to affect other things.

   I started here back in January (maybe February--I honestly can't
remember right now), and I've never really had a problem with spam.  I
like watching the chatter between some people (my fellow Sig Warriors, to
name a few), even if I'm not participating in the thread.  In addition,
many of the "Spamfics" are quite entertaining in their own right.  IMHO,
that's what fanfics are about, anyway--entertainment.  I was concerned
that some of what I feel makes the ML so enjoyable for me was being
threatened.  Naturally, I reacted.

That, I can understand.  I was not happy about the Poker Spam(fic) being
told to leave the list, but I could understand why WWolf asked us to do
that.  I enjoyed it a lot (of course, that was when I had the time to
contribute; I don't seem to have nearly as much free time any more  8(  ),
but I could recognize that there were plenty of people on the list who
did not.  Now that the situation is reversed (I don't like the sig war,
but I know that there are people on the list who do), I thought it at
least reasonable to suggest either starting a separate ML for it, like
we did with the Poker Spam, or toning it down so it doesn't dominate the
list.  After glancing over my email from last night, it looks like it's
been toned down a great deal already, for which I'm grateful.

I know you guys just can't stop chattering.  There's no way to do that
outside of a moderated ML, as someone commented.

"You can't get rid of all of the spam.  The only way to do that is to
have a moderated ML."

I'm not asking for the spam to cease altogether.  I enjoy it myself.  But
the amount of volume it's creating is causing problems for just about
everyone.  WWolf still has the same bandwidth problems, only now they're
on his own machine.  Those FFMLers with 500 k and 1 Meg accounts probably
aren't too happy, either.  I'm not saying this only because of the size
of their accounts, but because they can delete a 200 k fanfic they aren't
interested in a lot easier than 200 1 k spams, and in a lot less time.

So again.  I'm not asking for the spam to cease.  I'm asking for a
little common courtesy and respect.  I'm sure that's not too much to
ask.

   I feel that I have been fairly courteous.  I may get into spam posting,
but I do either end it or take it into private mail when it starts getting
out of hand.  I don't always realize that it's gotten out of hand, so I
don't complain when someone points it out to me.

*nod*  You have indeed been very courteous.  Thanks for understanding,
and hopefully we can still enjoy ourselves on this list.  When I first
posted that message and then mentioned it on IRC I was really afraid I'd
gone and hurt a lot of feelings, and I'm glad to see that wasn't the case,
at least for one person.

Again, if you bothered reading this far without deleting my post,
thanks for listening to me rant.

   No problem.  I felt I owed you that much, at least.  I hope you take
my own comments into account.

*nod*  I'm just happy I don't have to tell .AMS.flames to sort my fanfic
mail into fanfics and not-fanfics/spam.  Stuff without a "Re:" in the
subject line, and stuff with it.  ^_-



Damon Casale, scyth@andrew.cmu.edu

				* Love *
                 Between two people, there is nothing that
                      can draw them closer together