[Nottingham] Tux Games Antispam - Your message is being held

[Duncan John Fyfe]

On Mon, 2007-12-10 at 12:06 +0000, Martin wrote:

> 
> Rather than rhetoric, can we talk positive workable solutions?
> 
solution to what ?

"people whose attitudes are superior to mine are reluctant to let
politeness obstruct their zeal to correct me."

or 

how to handle SPAM ?

I think the former is a more serious problem than then latter.

Someone being abusive to Michael for making a choice they disagree with
(or for any other unreason) does nothing but harm.   As Michael (Leuty)
indicates, such incidents seriously damage us as a LUG because they give
us a bad reputation for abusive behaviour and shit like that sticks far
more than the many times people have asked for and received good,
friendly advice.

No matter what you think about C/R systems; Michael (Simms) has *chosen*
a solution which works *for him* and I have no doubt he will continue to
use it until he is convinced that his C/R system is doing more harm than
good *to him*.  Like many solutions to real world problems it isn't
perfect but it seems to do a good enough job (*for him*) - just like the
current mail system.  Declaring "Well I wouldn't say that, just that it
was designed in a different time." is merely trying to avoid
uncomfortable fact that, as is the current mail system has significant
flaws but "it seems to do a good enough job" to be usable by millions of
people every day.

To convince someone like Michael (Simms) to move away from a C/R system
(or away from windows, outlook or any other "bad" system) someone is
going to have to be able to demonstrate an alternative (better) system
that solves *their* problem - not the problem you think they have.  Then
you need to convince them why your alternative is better and why it is
worth their while to change - the inertia of their "working" or even
"I'll put up with it" system is against you.  Ranting about their
current system being crap only gets *us* labelled as loons, gets their
back up and makes it much harder for anyone trying to convince them to
use an alternative system.

Have fun,
Duncan