RFD: rec.pets.cats.breeds

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 07:01:57 -0700, Misty9999
wrote:


Obviously , you are not familiar with the cat groups. I rarely bother
with them anymore. Check out rec.pets.cats.health+behav.They have
flamefests that would put an Outlaw Biker's group to shame.

The only way such a group would succeed is if it was moderated. Most
of the people in the cat groups are involved in pet rescue. They hate
breeders. They feel that every purebred cat means one less home for
their shelter cats. Just owning a purebred cat can get you flamed.
Most people who own purebred cats also own shelter cats. That won't
matter to the rescue people. I can assure you that you will get
incessant posts about " Those irresponsible Breeders" " Those selfish
purebred cat owners " and on and on.

Moderation is extremely time consuming. You might want to read:

http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/faqs/mod-pitfalls.html
http://www.swcp.com/~dmckeon/mod-faq.html
http://www.landfield.com/moderators/


In most cases moderation is unnecessary if the users have some self
control. That means one never responds to a troll or a flame.. not even
once. One ignores it completely and also ignores anyone who can't
refrain from answering. It doesn't matter how witty your response or how
offended you were by a personal attack. Don't answer! It just irritates
the group to the point where they stop reading your messages as well.
Filter out the flamers. I've been reading the rec.pets.cats groups since
1995. A kill filter does wonders for the readability as well as for your
blood pressure.

I would add to the charter, "Rational discussions are encouraged,
personal attacks and flame-wars are strongly discouraged."

I'm going to crosspost this to news.groups and rpc.health+behav.
Discussion on an RFD has to be posted to news.groups, but the rpc
members must be brought in if the proposal is to get enough votes to
pass. Members of news.groups may comment on the RFD, but they will not
vote for a group they don't use. Most proposals fail because the
proponent didn't promote the new group to the possible voters.

BarB