Date: Sun, 08 Dec 1996 14:28:58 -0800
To: AGM mailing list
From: Gathel 
Subject: We've been here before (Or "More spam from the can")

Good Morning :-)

I just thought I would put my 2 cents worth in here. I have found the recent
crossposting and flaming to be rather stress producing (something my work
does well enough, Thank you). Therefore I finally broke down and purchased
the commercial version of Free Agent. This newsreader has an easy to use
filtering system (pretty much just one right click and two left clicks) and
it works quite well. The kill filters can be permanent or for a limited
time, so that you can banish a person from your computer for a finite time
period if you wish.

I didn't realize how well it was working until I attempted to figure out who
this Gonzalez character is (I thought it was Browne on his new account but 
I guess it was Spoon). Since I have Agent's kill filters against many in
Alt.nuke I used Netscape to read the news. I was surprised to see how 
much junk these people have been posting to AGM, I have been missing 
over 90% of it. My point here is that the kill filters really do work and they 
have made the problem pretty much disappear for me.

The policy of ignoring these people is a very good one and Agent's kill
filters make this very easy to do. Unfortunately there are always going to
be people who don't follow this rule, such as Mark, who has continued to
address the flamers directly, even after repeated requests not to (I have
written to him twice, first kindly and then sternly, and I know others
have as well). I really don't know what to do about such people, but a
person who repeatedly ignores our rules does not have a place here, even
when their offense is in defending themselves. I hate to see a person like
Mark driven away from our group, but in large part he is responsible for
this entire affair. For the moment Mark has not earned a spot in my kill
filters and I would be reluctant to place him there. 

Agent can be obtained from the net but it is $30 and you need a credit 
card. Its URL is:

www.forteinc.com/forte 

Another good place to get newsreaders with filtering capability is from 
The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Software. This site has hundreds of 
freeware and shareware programs for both Macintosh and Windows and it 
is fairly easy to find what you need on it. There are a number of freeware 
newsreaders listed that have filtering features. This is also a great place to 
go for software in general.  The main URL for this site takes you to a page 
listing their many mirror sites around the world. Check it out at:

www.tucows.com

Another advantage to the kill filters is that you can set them up to ignore
subjects as well as people.  I have a ban on subject lines that include the
terms commonly associated with spammers, such as "Make Money 
Fast", which reduces the clutter too.

I wish everyone a happy Sunday and a good week ahead. I start a new 
training course tomorrow and will be on a new team once I finish the course 
in three weeks. I will now have to support both software and hardware, which 
will be a real challenge to me.

BTW, Rmac and I watched Winston's tape of UKAGM this morning. Words 
fail me trying to tell you of my feeling while watching this tape. Thank you 
Winston for putting together this tape that allowed me to share in a small 
amount the time so many of you spent together. And thank all of you for 
being such constant friends.


{{{{{{{{{{{{Everybody}}}}}}}}}}}}

Gathel (In the Clouds)
                       
               /\_/\       
             ( O O )
              =\Y/=    MeOW!


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