>I was wondering how long it would take for some of the "big guns" in this >group to finally mention this within the group. :-) In fact, as Chuck, Paul, >and John know, I've been ragging on them so much about this topic that they >probably can't stand me anymore. >
No, that's not the case, but your posts sure did show up in the moderator's queue a lot there for a while! :-) Trust me, you were not the only one. There are a tremendous number of posts from a number of sources that get blocked on a regular basis. As I see it, the problem has been exacerbated by the certification explosion a couple of years ago and the increased demand for training materials. Four years ago when I first became a list participant there were quite a few regulars who actively worked as trainers or were involved in the creation of certification or networking-related materials, e.g. Howard, Priscilla, Todd Lammle, Tom Thomas, Kent Hundley, Robert Padjen, Adam Quiggle, Pamela Forsythe, etc. The list goes on and on. Over time, some of those people have stopped participating or at least significantly lowered their level of participation, while at the same time many of us were really starting to get rolling and were participating more actively. Because of our participation on this list, quite a few have become involved in the creation of certification materials like books, study guides, and lab scenarios, and this seems to have caused the problem we're facing now. As Paul has said many times, this list was never intended to be commercial. It's a place to study and learn from those who have gone before us, to share insights into particular issues that we have experienced, and to impart the knowledge we've gained to others. Despite the ever-increasing involvement by some members in commercial efforts this list is still NOT a commercial list! It's not intended to be a platform for vendor advertisements. At many times in the past this list has been abused by spammers or people who wouldn't get the hint that they shouldn't be blasting the list with advertisements for their materials. When blatent advertisements were clamped down, vendors found other ways to advertise. For example, the most common method is to post short, simple, non-answers to a question and then include five or six lines of signature that are nothing more than advertisements. This has been a particular concern because it becomes difficult to moderate. There are a couple of people who are particularly bad about this and we tend to filter them more often. At times we probably have blocked legitimate posts that appear to be using this technique but we are only trying to cut down on abuse. We're not trying to censor anyone at all. If everyone would stick to the posting guidelines of the list we wouldn't have to filter any posts! There are additional techniques used by some of our participants that I won't mention but they're equally difficult to moderate without having a few legitimate posts as casualties. Should we block all discussions of commercial materials? Definitely not! This is a place to learn, after all, and many of us use the same materials and have the same issues. On the other hand, many of those vendors have their own forums for this purpose and it might be more appropriate to ask vendor-specific questions in those forums. Okay, enough rambling for now. I have to get some real work done. :-) Regards, John Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=62975&t=62930 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
