Post by MoriartyPost by p***@gmail.comPost by Lawrence Watt-EvansPost by p***@gmail.comPost by Dimensional TravelerPost by p***@gmail.comStarmaker, in his efforts to derail useful
discussion here, crossposts his bullshit with
alt.atheism, sci.physics, etc.
It might be useful to trim the Newsgroups: line
when responding.
Even better is to not respond to "him" at all.
Agreed. Of non-spammers, he is far and away the least
interesting regular on this board.
You don't consider it a spammer?
No, in the taxonomy I use, he's a troll. A spammer
doesn't respond to others.
Using that taxonomy, the guy who wrote "Rarity from the Hollow" wasn't a spammer.
(If you're unfamiliar with that title, consider yourself lucky. It was a book that was constantly plugged in rasfw by its author over an extended period a few years ago.)
Point taken - there are always edge cases, which fall between two stools.
Lets not make the error of assuming that everything in the world falls neatly
into our categories.
There's been a handful of posters in rasfw and rasff who came in to plug
something, and been castigated for it. Some go away, some persist for a
while, and some eventually get assimilated and become regular posters, no
longer with a singular agenda.
But to me, a 'spammer' posts to (usually) many groups, and never responds to
any of them, and probably doesn't even read responses. The 'Islam is
wonderful' guy is one - so is the guy posting ads for exam handbooks,
and recently, the guy posting links to dodgy pirate movie sites. There's
virtually nothing you can do about them in non-moderated groups, except
personally killfile them.
A 'troll', otoh, is interactive. He or she lives for the responses, gets
a kick out of winding people up, and creating arguments. Starmaker is one.
He employs two main techniques. First, posting ignorant anti-science
nonsense here, in a group which generally holds science in high regard.
Second, cross posting between groups whose members are probably antagonistic
towards each other, with thread starting flamebait designed to elicit a
response from one group which will be regarded as a declaration of war.
I assume he then makes some popcorn, sits back and enjoys watching the
fuss he created.
He employs that quite successfully here. I see very little to appreciate in
a rasfw/alt.atheism/whatever feud.
pt