Antipodean Bucket Farmer wrote in
:

Ususally, I just try to filter out off-topic newsgroup
posts by keywords in the Subject or Body fields.
Unfortunately, some people are enthused about
discussing someone who happens to have a surname
similar to certain types of plants. (Note that I
decline to discuss any intelligence or morality
similarities.)

There are thousands of separate newsgroups, carefully
sorted into different subjects.

When I read rec.gardens and rec.gardens.edible I am
looking for discussion on (drum roll please) gardening.

If I wanted to read discussion and debates about which
criminals are running which gubmint in which country, I
would go to newsgroups where those topics were actually
relevant.

Perhaps certain people could start placing some warning
keyword in the Subject line of their non-gardening
posts. Then, folks interested in gardening could
filter out the non-interesting debates.

Thank you.


I agree I'd be nice if you could automate the filtering things you're not
interested in, but that would require a modicum of courtesy and I think
most people are content to do it manually.