y'know... if the people who have told me how glad they are that i've taken
certain loons and whackos to task here recently would cc the ietf@ list as
often as the people who have told me to stop feeding the trolls or the other
people who have told me that i lack manners...
...then we could have a real food
fight here, which would help nobody and construct nothing. so, thanks for
your good wishes, and i understand your motives for keeping it just twixt us.
anyway, bill@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
> This is twice in two days now.
actually it's about once a year.
once a year it occurs to me that we have a hoard of new lurkers -- a new
gallery, if you will. and as i watch posts from loons and whackos go
largely unanswered, it further occurs to me that some of these lurkers
might be confused as to why posts on certain topics, or posts from certain
authors, seem to die without much argument even though the articles are
clearly provocative in their content.
the reasons vary. many long time ietf@ participants have seen these
threads before and just ignore them. many others are wary of getting mail
asking them "please don't feel the trolls" and so they stay silent. some
others have configured their mail tools to eradicate all evidence of certain
other participants, including original text, followups, or quoted text.
but to a lurker, none of this is necessarily obvious. for all "they" know,
the reason noone answers is that the whackos and loons have stated their case
so brilliantly that no answer is possible. so while it's clear without
context that most people are hoping that threads will just die, there's
possible ambiguity as to the reason for this widespread hope.
let there be no ambiguity. the reason i'm not answering these whackos and
loons, and the reason most often given to me by others why they don't answer,
is that "you should never try to teach a pig to sing, because it wastes your
time and annoys the pig." (RAH, writing as LL)
and until next spring or early summer, i'll be content to leave it at that.
--
Paul Vixie
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