Banty wrote:

You know what?

I think filters and killfiles are all well and good and use them some.

But that doesn't mean that these kinds of things aren't part of a creeping crud
that has been crapping up Usenet in general, and contributing to its overall
decline.

To be quite honest I think there's a lot less spaming now than when I
was reading in 2000. (hey, there's hardly any c*r* spam in m.k.p!)
I think the overall decline has a lot to do with "uneducated" internet
users. I think back in 2000 most users had some sort of
university/college background, at least I'm sure that was the case in
germany. And I think it's still laregly the case. I have a friend who's
been online almost as long as I have (1996/97) and she doesn't even know
about usenet, she uses Forums all the way.

Forums are a lot more acessible than usenet, they're easy usually to
navigate, there's moderators/administrators you can turn to in case
something turns nasty, or they'll step in themselves as it happens.
Usenet is different, we do our own "moderating", sometimes a thread gets
out of hand, but so what? I know how to kill a thread in my newsreader,
I don't have to read spam if I don't want to. And personally I think the
information I get here is usually better than what I would get in a Forum.

just my 2 (euro)cents ;-)

nicole