Abuse of List Through Excessive Posts & Foul Language

[Jeanne Eidex]

Does anyone know what we should do if a recent member is posting
excessively to the list and using foul language?

Simple math will tell you that if all 2,300 of us post multiple times a day
(for example, about 3 questions a day) then this will result in 6,900
emails per day in all of our boxes.  This would make it completely
impossible for this list to exist.

Further, a simple calculation (that can probably be done in SPSS - ha, ha)
will reveal that the rest of us are at least somewhat successful at using
this program without submitting 3 (or more) questions per day.

We were all beginners at some point but back when I started in oh yes...
the early 1990's, we used this thing called a manual and learned some stuff
through trial and error.

Sorry to send you all this email but I think it needs to be made clear that
this list should be used with care and some measure of appreciation that it
belongs to everyone.

Jeanne

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[Bruce Weaver]

Hello Jeanne.  I suspect I know who it is you are referring to.  ;-)

I think it is partly down to (some) younger folks thinking that a mailing list (or newsgroup) is some kind of variation on Twitter or a chat-room.  

Re the foul language, I took that as possibly ESL-related.  Just how vulgar or offensive certain words are is much harder to judge in a non-native language (or even in a different dialect of one's own native language, as I discovered when I lived in the UK for a while in the 90s).  

Judging from what you've said, you receive posts to SPSSX-L in your everyday e-mail inbox.  Here are two suggestions:

1. Turn off delivery to your inbox and read the list via Nabble (http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/) for a while.  This allows you to easily skip threads that are not of interest to you.  (It also helps if you subscribe to the list using an e-mail address other than your everday email--e.g., I am subscribed from a hotmail account I use only for this list, but read and post via the Nabble archive.)

2.  If you want to continue reading via e-mail, perhaps you can set a filter to weed out messages from any members who are becoming annoying.  

Finally, it may be time for David to repost his tips on posting to SPSSX-L, with something about the Twitter business added if it's not already there.  

HTH.

Jeanne Eidex wrote

Does anyone know what we should do if a recent member is posting
excessively to the list and using foul language?

Simple math will tell you that if all 2,300 of us post multiple times a day
(for example, about 3 questions a day) then this will result in 6,900
emails per day in all of our boxes.  This would make it completely
impossible for this list to exist.

Further, a simple calculation (that can probably be done in SPSS - ha, ha)
will reveal that the rest of us are at least somewhat successful at using
this program without submitting 3 (or more) questions per day.

We were all beginners at some point but back when I started in oh yes...
the early 1990's, we used this thing called a manual and learned some stuff
through trial and error.

Sorry to send you all this email but I think it needs to be made clear that
this list should be used with care and some measure of appreciation that it
belongs to everyone.

Jeanne

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

[David Marso]

LMAO!
I was just thinking that exact thought... Great minds think alike or something?
Now to find the elusive thing!
I do have a Twitter denouncement in that post... Stay tuned.
I'll bump it so the other posts in the thread will be salient as well.

----

Bruce Weaver wrote

Hello Jeanne.  I suspect I know who it is you are referring to.  ;-)

I think it is partly down to (some) younger folks thinking that a mailing list (or newsgroup) is some kind of variation on Twitter or a chat-room.  

Re the foul language, I took that as possibly ESL-related.  Just how vulgar or offensive certain words are is much harder to judge in a non-native language (or even in a different dialect of one's own native language, as I discovered when I lived in the UK for a while in the 90s).  

Judging from what you've said, you receive posts to SPSSX-L in your everyday e-mail inbox.  Here are two suggestions:

1. Turn off delivery to your inbox and read the list via Nabble (http://spssx-discussion.1045642.n5.nabble.com/) for a while.  This allows you to easily skip threads that are not of interest to you.  (It also helps if you subscribe to the list using an e-mail address other than your everday email--e.g., I am subscribed from a hotmail account I use only for this list, but read and post via the Nabble archive.)

2.  If you want to continue reading via e-mail, perhaps you can set a filter to weed out messages from any members who are becoming annoying.  

Finally, it may be time for David to repost his tips on posting to SPSSX-L, with something about the Twitter business added if it's not already there.  

HTH.

Jeanne Eidex wrote

Does anyone know what we should do if a recent member is posting
excessively to the list and using foul language?

Simple math will tell you that if all 2,300 of us post multiple times a day
(for example, about 3 questions a day) then this will result in 6,900
emails per day in all of our boxes.  This would make it completely
impossible for this list to exist.

Further, a simple calculation (that can probably be done in SPSS - ha, ha)
will reveal that the rest of us are at least somewhat successful at using
this program without submitting 3 (or more) questions per day.

We were all beginners at some point but back when I started in oh yes...
the early 1990's, we used this thing called a manual and learned some stuff
through trial and error.

Sorry to send you all this email but I think it needs to be made clear that
this list should be used with care and some measure of appreciation that it
belongs to everyone.

Jeanne

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

[Moon Kid]

Dear Jeanne,

first of all I apologize for what ever I have done.

Please help me to learn and give me examples of my "Foul Language". I
don't really know what it could be.

An explanation for you could be that my english is quite bad, either
for a german person.

Another factor could be the cultural gap. Depending on your domain I
would say you are from the USA? I know nothing about the culture there.
I can just tell you about my culture that most of our people prefer
open and direct conversations.

For example your post is quite indirect but of course I know who you
mean with it.
The world would be a little bit better if everyone would just say (in
correct and friendly words) what the problem is.

> Simple math will tell you
> [..]
> result in 6,900 emails per day in all of our boxes.  This would make
> it completely impossible for this list to exist.

Currently the list has a litle bit more than 1400 subscribers. Anyway
it is not much. Did you ever used other mailinglists or the usenet (aka
newsgroups)? There are lists with some hundreds mails per day.
The traffic in this list here is near to "death" related to other lists.

As my colleges here suggested:
Don't use your primary mailbox for mailinglist. You should use a second
mailbox for that. And use the filter machnism of your mail-software.

> we used this thing called a manual and
> learned some stuff through trial and error.

I described my problems with the SPSS-documentation and the big
difference with the concepts and paradigmn behind SPSS in another
thread. I understand that my point of view is very hard to understand
for someone who is not a software-/database-developer and who used SPSS
for decades.
I know it is to easy to say that SPSS is an old thing from the 60ties.
When SPSS was born the designers had a concept in their mind and
implemented it. In that age data processing was quite different to now.
SPSS hold the old concepts and try to fit to the "new" age. This makes
it quite hard to get into it.

I don't only use a software. Especially a software like SPSS... I want
to get INTO it and behind the concepts. I really try to understand it
not only using it.

When I want to do something new with SPSS I often don't know what
"words" in the SPSS concept are used for it. So I am not able to search
(but I try) because SPSS and me, we are using very different languages
(I don't mean the english-german-gap) because of our different paradigms
we are coming from.

So please apologize for being like I am and stepping on your foots with
it. Help to to fit better in this group with communicating more open
and direct with me.

And please accept that there are people using SPSS they come from very
different ways of thinking and experiences.

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[JosephYoungblood]

I greatly appreciate the cross fertilization that SHOULD occur in forums such
as this.  But at the same time, this forum SHOULD NOT supplant one's own
responsibility for their learning, or self-performing their homework.  The
frequency and granularity of the innumerable questions from Moon Kid
certainly suggest that he/she is relying on the collective experience,
knowledge and wisdom of the primary contributors to this listserv to do for
him/her what he/she appears unable or unwilling to do.

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD