katey_new wrote:
Hi JennC

It's really annoying when people use forums for general banter (or
insults) and really don't provide helpful information. Really guys if
you're wanting banter go to a chat room but JennC posted this to get
helpful advice about her honeysuckle - not get called an idiot and not
to find out about the functionality of email programmes.


Usenet is full of compromises. Did know that this is a usenet newsgroup
rec.gardens? People usually inhabit only a few NGs and so those there
become familiar. If seeking help it is very common to ask those you know
before seeking an outsider even the latter is an expert and the former is
not. Similarly those with a pleasant history together will swap ideas that
may not be strictly on topic. Do you really want to take the banter out of
garden banter? These factors pretty well guarantee that some posts will
drift off topic.

While HB may not have come here looking for info on 'email programmes'
(newsreaders actually) they asked about killfiling for obvious reasons.
Should this OT request have been ignored, should the request have been
refered to other forums or would it be the neighbourly thing to reply in
context? I chose option #3 as being constructive and helpful.

It would be nice if all posts here were reasonably on topic and civil. If
wishing would make it so.

Neither you no I can control what is posted here. The only control we have
is what we read and what we respond to. If all users posted though a medium
that allowed killfiling, Sheldon (AKA Brooklyn) would not be posting to
anybody, it would be as if he never existed (oh bliss!) and the tone of the
group would be lifted greatly. So in the sense of trying to gain a measure
of control and exclude unpleasant and irrelevant material discusion of
killfiles and the software that enables them is relevant.

David