Re: SCIENCE OFTEN MASQUERADES AS LAW (AND VICE-VERSA)
Stacy Ferguson (sferguso@kimbark.uchicago.edu)
Fri, 5 May 1995 05:23:16 GMT
In article <799274348snz@mccaddon.demon.co.uk>,
Andrew McCaddon <Andrew@mccaddon.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <D7toG7.4Ku@midway.uchicago.edu>
> sferguso@midway.uchicago.edu "Stacy Ferguson" writes:
>
>> He didn't say that, now did he? He made a statement of fact. No one DOES
>> have to listen to him or anyone else, for that matter. You know, there ARE
>> actually folks out there who don't know how to use a kill file. Do _you_
>> read every single solitary post made to Usenet? If not, do you consider
>> yourself a censor by not reading them all?
>
>Dear Stacy,
>
>Like me. :-) Can you tell me how to use a kill file? Is it to put in names
>for whom you don't want to receive post? Thanks for any help, sorry I'm new
>around here.
>
>Andrew
>
Oops! Guess I should have realized that I could have been correct and
that I left people hanging. I guess I'm so used to frequenting more
hostile newsgroups that killfiles are one of those things EVERYone there
knows about :)
Okay. You've already gotten instructions for tin newsreaders, with
which I'm unfamiliar. Most people I know use trn, and I can help with
that.
First, a killfile is a command that tells your newsreader to eliminate
articles that you don't want to know about. Of course, you can always
skip and article by hitting "n" to go on to the next article, but
sometimes the obnoxious threads get really long and you may have to
hit "n" a number of times to get to the next article.
Let's say Poor Richard, for example, has written a post you aren't
interested in. You can make sure that you never see that post or
responses to it never again. In fact, you'll never even know it was
there in the first place. It's kind of like the article never reached
your site.
You can kill a particular thread by typing "K". If you type a small "k",
you'll still kill the thread but only for that session. By typing a
capital "K" (without the quotes) you are telling your newsreader that
"The next time open sci.bio, this thread won't be here". The problem
with this is that this won't keep OTHER articles by Poor Richard from
popping up.
This can be taken care of. If you don't want to know about another
article from Poor Richard ever again, you can type CONTROL-K (the
"K" must be in caps) and you will enter an editor. There will be
a line in which the word KILL appears. You would add the following:
/Poor Richard/h:j
to the line in which "KILL" appears. This will tell your newsreader
to get rid of anything written by Poor Richard so you'll never even
know it was there. Use whatever name or words are in the "From:"
line of the post.
A few things to keep in mind. Killfiles can be defeated. The only
people I've ever killfiled are a few guys who are extremely anti-
female in other newsgroups (not this one); guys who love to go
on and on about how women are inferior and should be home barefoot
and pregnant. I learned eons ago that arguing with a fool like that
is pointless since you can't suddenly expect them to decide that
you're right. It just annoys me to hear from the same jerks over and
over again. Of course, sometimes these guys realize that people have
killfiled them because no one is responding to them anymore so they
change their finger names, craving all the attention they used to get
even if it is negative. You'll have to killfile on the basis of the
new name to continue avoiding the person you really don't want to
hear a peep from.
Also, killfiles will make entering a newsgroup take a few seconds
longer. If you were to type "trn sci.bio", and had killfiled Poor
Richard, then it will take the newsreader a few seconds to search
through all the articles and get rid of the articles by Poor Richard.
Once Poor Richard gets bored and stops posting, you may want to
get rid of the killfile because your newsreader will still go looking
for them whether or not he is still a frequent poster and it'll still
take a few seconds to look for him.
Hope this helps.
Stacy
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