Because, while it's easy, it wouldn't solve what some see
as the problem.

Hope this helps clarify the issues for some,

Yes, it does. Thanks, Sydney.

Although (as always happens when an uproar like this starts rolling along)
I've now got a back-log of photos and bios from eager contributors to upload
to the Gallery, I will try to keep their announcements to a minimum.

It's a real shame that this site -- created solely for users of this
forum -- is being painted with the same brush as commercial sites, but I
*do* see your point. It's a slippery slope from announcing the Rogue's
Gallery additions to allowing other sites with more tangential (I.E.:
commercial) connections -- and then all we'll have here is a newsgroups full
of commercial announcements. I, too, have seen this happen to other
newsgroups, and it destroys the group.

Please be aware, all, that I created the Rogue's Gallery with the best of
intentions.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
"Snowbird" wrote in message
om...
Peter R. wrote in message
...
I am continually amazed at people who spend more energy bitching about a
problem than solving it.

Peter,

With respect, while you're perfectly correct about the ease
of filtering or disregarding some posts, I think you misunderstand
what some people see as the issue. It's not a problem which can
really be solved by individual filters. Let me explain.

I was kinda hoping that someone better at explaining USENET
history than I would address this but, seems not so I'll take
a shot. This is for informational and educational purposes
and isn't intended to induce anyone to purchase a lottery ticket.

Suppose you found a newsgroup with an interesting topic
like rec.aviation.whatever. However, when you downloaded
the posts, it was chock full of posts from commercial
establishments. Now there might still be people talking
in the NG. They might even be having interesting discussions
about flying and airplanes that you'd like to join. But
if you didn't know what posters or topics to killfile, it
would just look like a group full of junk and you'd wander
on. Eventually, as the regulars moved on through normal
attrition, there'd be less and less topical discussion and
the ng would wither. (stay with me, I'm getting to the point)

For that reason among others, newsgroups prohibit commercial
postings. Since many commercial sites include useful or
interesting information, posts which direct the reader to
interesting information on a commercial site are widely
considered to be commercial postings even if they just say
"come see the cool updated info on my commercial site".

This is a bit of a gray area, obviously, and different people
will see it differently. If the web site is cited as an
answer to a direct question ie "where can I get information
about how to make my own aircraft antennae?" or "where
can I find pictures of all you hooligans?" I think very
few people object. For some, the dividing line is the
frequency of posts directing the reader to the site or
to what extent they are cross-posted. Occasional posts
don't typically draw comment. Frequent posts, esp. cross
posted, start looking more like spam.

But the concern is: if one business person is making
frequent posts directing people to updates of the non-
commercial stuff on his commercial site and that's
considered just ducky, will other business people
follow suit? It's especially a concern if they're all
cross posted; will we soon have multiple newsgroups
packed full of such postings, where it's hard to find
the 'signal'?

It's a valid concern. I've seen similar things happen
to other newsgroups I used to read.

And it's clearly not a concern which can be "solved"
by everyone who objects killfiling the offending threads
or poster. In fact, doing so might be seen as counter-
productive, since if such posts are seen to meet with
nothing but approval, other businesspeople could (with
justification) see it as an approved, appropriate thing
to do.

I cherish the rec.aviation groups, most of which have
a pretty high signal to noise despite the occasional
Invasion of the Loons or heated argument. I really
don't want to see them become a Forest of "Come see
the latest update to my rec.aviation flight tracker
info on my site!"

It seems to me that the issue has several solutions.
Most web hosting services seem to allow multiple
domain names. The "rogue's gallery" could be put
under a separate domain, rather than as a part of
Jay's site. Update notices could be posted at
a more reasonable interval. But compromise doesn't
seem to be on the agenda here (shades of my 4 yo:
cover ears NYA NYA NYA YOU'RE STUPID I'M NOT LISTENING
YOU'RE A BUM NYA NYA) and this whole thread seems
to be bringing out Beaucoup du Loons, so I'm outta
here.

Since Jay uses the same wording in every subject line of
these posts, why not simply create a rule in your newsreader
to ignore the threads.

Sydney