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Hi Helen Capps-Tunwell : ) > Hi Sam & Karen – I am in a similar position & wholeheartedly agree with > you.  Not sure how long I’ll give this newsgroup at this rate!

I’m sure we will all be terribly sorry to see you go. > If it’s such fun, is there a newsgroup for ‘being rude, and leaving the > subject’?

Probably, but we all like dogs too. So, it works out beautifully for most of us. > I frequently use equestrian newsgroups and find that they stick, almost > exclusively to the topic in hand. > Helen

I don’t have horses so that wouldn’t be of interest to me. Only Karen, not Sam (doesn’t read ng’s)

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On a very hot day, and with no watermelon in sight, Tue, 14 Jul 1998 [...] >To the regular posters, >Keep up the good work you guys I’ve learned a bunch from you, even from the flame >posts!  ;-) >NGC and Tinkerbell

Let’s hear it for NGC! HIP HIP HOORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! { :>O — Dogman About Hunting Retrievers http://www.i1.net/~dogman/fieldtrl.htm About The Finest Sour Mash Whisky Under The Sun http://www.georgedickel.com "Violence, when there are alternatives, is immoral. Violence, when there are no alternatives, is survival." Dogman "Do unto others as they do unto you." Dogman

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> > As a new dog owner I have tuned into this newsgroup and other similar ones > dealing with dogs and find myself discouraged by the amount of inane > bickering and name calling that goes on.  Why is it that some newsgroups must > degenerate to this and others can stick to the topic on hand.  I don’t know > about others but I want to read about dogs and not have to scan through the > garbage, perhaps those interested in this type of negative interaction could > spare the rest of us and communicate through their emails.  For those who > can stick to relevant topics THANK YOU I know I’ll learn a lot from you. > Sam

Sam, I’m also new to rpdb, but not to newsgroups, if you think there’s a lot of flaming going on here, boy, your way wrong.  r.p.d.b is tame compared to some groups in soc.culture, alt. politics and even in alt. parenting. As a matter of fact, I kind of enjoy watching people spar with each other, it would be a mighty boring ng is all you got were informative articles, that what the websites are for! To the regular posters, Keep up the good work you guys I’ve learned a bunch from you, even from the flame posts!  ;-) NGC and Tinkerbell ICQ #12211802

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> As a new dog owner I have tuned into this newsgroup and other similar ones > dealing with dogs and find myself discouraged by the amount of inane > bickering and name calling that goes on.  Why is it that some newsgroups must > degenerate to this and others can stick to the topic on hand.

Because it’s fun. Which news group have you read that never does this? I haven’t seen one myself. > I don’t know > about others but I want to read about dogs and not have to scan through the > garbage, perhaps those interested in this type of negative interaction could > spare the rest of us and communicate through their emails.

Perhaps you can go to your search engine and type in DOG and go from there. No arguing, only information, though some may still be controversial. > For those who > can stick to relevant topics THANK YOU I know I’ll learn a lot from you. > Sam

You will learn from the others too if you lighten up a little and go with it. Karen

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Hi Sam & Karen – I am in a similar position & wholeheartedly agree with you.  Not sure how long I’ll give this newsgroup at this rate! If it’s such fun, is there a newsgroup for ‘being rude, and leaving the subject’? I frequently use equestrian newsgroups and find that they stick, almost exclusively to the topic in hand. Helen

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->Did you catch the part about her being able to get along with >people? Damn neared wet my pants!!! >Terri >You mean this? >>>I get along very well with people, and seem to know >>>instinctively how to get them to do what I want. >Maaaan, is that rich or what? >So skilled at getting people to do what she wants that she >has killfiled virtually everyone who has ever posted to >rpd*.  That certainly would indicate an impressive mastery >of "people skills."

ROFL !! Yep she gets people to do as she wants by killfiling them, then she won’t have to read em anymore and fantasize about how we are all so impressed with her worldly knowledge and omnipotence, that we are reading all of her posts in awe, and not able to muster another one of our own <BG>. Wonder how in the hell she ‘killfiles’ people in real life ?????? Nah, don’t wanna know, don’t care, and think this whole post of her’s is just another of her melodramatic attempts at attention getting. Jeeze Louise, what next ??? MaryBeth     Now to the original poster, if you’d like to stick around , there is alot of great advice and fun here. (Please overlook the previous part of this post, at least until you get to know this Scritto character….then you be the judge <G>)     For an informative view of past discussions you can go to dejanews.com and look up RPDB past posts, by the different posters. This way you’ll have a better idea about the history of their posts. I know I for one, have made some doozies in the past, and apologized when I was wrong, but we are all human, well most of us <G>. And as the saying goes, "To err is human, to forgive canine". Stick around get to know some of us, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. There are other dog groups, such as health, breeds (controversial) at the moment also, misc. (for anything that doesn’t quite fit with the specific groups), and activities. Some are more, um, shall we say, calm than others. Hope you find one to your liking. Welcome and I hope you stay. MaryBeth

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Nothing like the old well tried topic headings to get everyone to participate. Give the dog a bone and stand back—and we wonder why we can’t control our dogs —Tee hee!

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Hello Sam:) Welcome to this rpdb! When I first found this newsgroup I too was put off by the trolls, spam and namecalling. Trolls and spam are easy to avoid – just avoid the posts with capital letters and terrifying subject lines such as "I killed my dog …". The name calling was most shocking, but you’ll soon learn the names of the ones doing that and avoid them too. If you stick around you’ll see that the majority are nice and here because they are interested in dogs, need help or wish to help. Just make sure you stick to the topic (dogs), avoid capital letters, count to ten before replying to an annoying post, avoid flaming when being flamed or seeing others being flamed. As for the ones flaming, I believe they are here for a reason too – perhaps this makes them feel they matter, is the only way they interact with others etc. I’ve seen the same on chats: someone comes in to flame. Other people loves it because it gives them a chance to bash someone. Some people though are smart enough to either ignore or start a polite conversation with the flamer and havoc is over. You see the same in children who feel ignored, when being good doesn’t help, perhaps being bad does; Bad attention is better than no attention. There are a bunch of dog related mailinglists where flaming aren’t allowed, however, I haven’t been able to find any with as many interesing messages as here. If you’d like a list of the mailinglists I’ll email it to you. Take care and enjoy:) A guide to good manners on the net: http://www.ukindex.co.uk/begin8.html Hjemmeside/Homepage: http://www.ifi.ntnu.no/~haugenes/

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On a very hot day, and with no watermelon in sight, 13 Jul 1998 >You won’t be very happy here.   >Find yourselves a MODERATED newsgroup or mailing list, eh? >Gee Dogman, I thought you were supposed to have changed.  I see that you >haven’t more and more.  Mostly I skip your stuff, but sometimes I just have to >comment

I don’t believe you, 716. Here’s what I believe: You rush home to your apartment every morning from your job as the night-shift clerk at a Quik Trip. You’re tired, constipated, smelly, lonely, and your feet are swollen. You rush over to the computer your mother bought you a few years ago, back when you two were still speaking to each other, to check your e-mail.  But it’s always the same — just more spam. So you click away to check your newsgroups, especially r.p.d.b., to see what the ol’ Dogman is up to today. Not much, as you can see, so you decide to poke him with a stick again, just like you always do when you CRAVE ATTENTION. And one day, 716, when you least expect it, I’m going to take that stick of yours and beat you over the head with it. :>) — Dogman About Hunting Retrievers http://www.i1.net/~dogman/fieldtrl.htm About The Finest Sour Mash Whisky Under The Sun http://www.georgedickel.com "Violence, when there are alternatives, is immoral. Violence, when there are no alternatives, is survival." Dogman "Do unto others as they do unto you." Dogman

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> Exactly my point those of us who enjoy our dogs and want to discuss them are > no more interested in your inane sparring than you are in horses.  

Then don’t read it, if you’re not interested.  If you can’t tell from the subject line that it’s a post you’re not interested in, you can certainly tell by the first few sentences.  Nobody’s forcing you to read stuff you don’t want to read. > What truly > amazes me is that some of you claim to be trainers yet have little control > over your own inappropriate behaviour.  

Control?  Other than one particular person here, I’d say we all are in complete control of what we post.  Being in control of what we post doesn’t guarantee that everybody will like it, though.  Tough luck. > Whether or not many of you have been > on this newsgroup for ages and enjoy this drivel the newsgroup title suggests > dogs behaviour and that is where the discussion should focus. Not every > aspect of life should be reduced to the Jerry Springer model of human > relations.  Due to positive posts and emails I will continue to read and post > to this newsgroup and do as advised and simply ignore the posts and postees > that I find crass.  

Well, uh, yeah, that’s exactly the point.   > I look forward to interacting with those who want to talk > dog,  and can help me raise my new puppy. Those who are feeling slighted by > my lack of interest in your off topic posts, please feel free to ignore > mine in the future.

Feeling slighted by your lack of interest?  Heh.  How about feeling annoyed by yet another whiner and control freak?   Good luck with your puppy. Daisy — "Now *I’m* the friggin’ lunatic!   Now *I’m* the friggin’ drunk!   Now *I’m* the friggin Idiot!"  – Michael Patton in rec.pets.dogs.behavior, finally seeing the light

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>As a new subscriber to the newsgroup myself I have already benefited from >some valuable advice (thank you Dogman). >I think as a new subscriber it is probably best not to get involved in >controversial statements about the group as many of the members seem to have >a long history behind them. >There is really good advice on this group so don’t stop reading it. >Cara

I would second Cara’s points here.  There is a lot of history here with the different participants – several years with some of them. Try to do your best to ignore it if really bothers you, otherwise just sort of roll with it.  What you’re seeing here is the Internet reality of things, it’s not always useful or relevant and there’s not a whole lot that can be done about it.   However, like Cara said, there is a lot of good information that can be gleaned from the newsgroup.  I would urge you not to stop reading it and start participating – hopefully in a positive manner.  If the irrelevant material really bothers you, participating can be the best thing to do, both for you and the newsgroup.  FWIW, that’s why I started posting.  And things were much worse at that point.  I like to flatter myself by thinking I made some small contribution. One of the things you can do to help you ignore certain posts is get the news reader Agent or Free Agent.  Go to http://www.forteinc.com. It will allow you to ignore posts that you don’t want to read.  If it still bothers you, then do as Dogman suggests and try one of the moderated E-mail lists.  You can find instructions on how to subscribe and what lists there are on Dianne Blackman’s web site, http:www.dog-play.com.   Ludwig Smith Dog FAQ’s http://www.k9web.com/dog-faqs/

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>> ROTFLMAO.  Scritto on "newsgroup behavior"?!? > Oh, the irony.  :-)

[snip] > And so I just *had* to take a peek.  Damned if the first > paragraph doesn’t sound just like Mikey.  Well, that’s as far > as I could stand to read. >Did you catch the part about her being able to get along with >people? Damn neared wet my pants!!! >Terri

You mean this? >>I get along very well with people, and seem to know >>instinctively how to get them to do what I want.

Maaaan, is that rich or what?   So skilled at getting people to do what she wants that she has killfiled virtually everyone who has ever posted to rpd*.  That certainly would indicate an impressive mastery of "people skills." At least her epic killfile is now a page on her website rather than a sigfile.  Could it be her posts were being screened as spam? almost done chuckling, Cyntyra

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> It’s not just newsgroups: http://scritto.com/mt_group.html – Michelle

If human resources class was such a snap for you, you might try a grammer class. Daisy

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > ROTFLMAO.  Scritto on "newsgroup behavior"?!? > Oh, the irony.  :-) >As a new dog owner I have tuned into this newsgroup and >other similar ones dealing with dogs and find myself >discouraged by the amount of inane bickering and name >calling that goes on. > commented: >It’s not just newsgroups: http://scritto.com/mt_group.html – >Michelle > Scritto!!?!  Of the world’s largest killfile (you ain’t nobody > lest you’re on Scritto’s kill list ). > And so I just *had* to take a peek.  Damned if the first > paragraph doesn’t sound just like Mikey.  Well, that’s as far > as I could stand to read.

Did you catch the part about her being able to get along with people? Damn neared wet my pants!!! Terri

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> As a new dog owner I have tuned into this newsgroup and other similar ones > dealing with dogs and find myself discouraged by the amount of inane > bickering and name calling that goes on.  Why is it that some newsgroups must > degenerate to this and others can stick to the topic on hand.  I don’t know > about others but I want to read about dogs and not have to scan through the > garbage, perhaps those interested in this type of negative interaction could > spare the rest of us and communicate through their emails.  For those who > can stick to relevant topics THANK YOU I know I’ll learn a lot from you. > Sam

Sam, This is an unmoderated, public newsgroup.  A lot of us know each other’s e-personalities fairly well, and this is a fine place to have discussions that interest several posters.  No discussion is going to interest every poster.  Frankly, your discussion here annoys the hell out of me, but you’re still free to start it.   There are a lot of ways to get information on dog behavior other than by reading this group.  There are faqs, web pages, mailing lists (and some that are moderated), and of course, books and real-life trainers.  If this group proves to be more annoying to you than good, then don’t come here.  It’s as easy as that. Daisy

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>Chaotic.  Confusing.  Silly.  Unbelievable.  Profound.  Funny. >Educational.  Time-wasting.  Noisy.  Complex.  Rowdy.  Obscene. >All that and much, much more.

Do you mean like: sophisticated, refined, intellectual, inspirational?  + each post reveals something about the writer.

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>You won’t be very happy here.   >Find yourselves a MODERATED newsgroup or mailing list, eh?

Gee Dogman, I thought you were supposed to have changed.  I see that you haven’t more and more.  Mostly I skip your stuff, but sometimes I just have to comment Dogstar716  "He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.  You are    his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true,    to the last beat of his heart.  You owe it to him to be worthy of such    devotion"    – Unknow

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ROTFLMAO.  Scritto on "newsgroup behavior"?!?   Oh, the irony.  :-) >As a new dog owner I have tuned into this newsgroup and >other similar ones dealing with dogs and find myself >discouraged by the amount of inane bickering and name >calling that goes on.

commented: >It’s not just newsgroups: http://scritto.com/mt_group.html – >Michelle

Scritto!!?!  Of the world’s largest killfile (you ain’t nobody lest you’re on Scritto’s kill list ). And so I just *had* to take a peek.  Damned if the first paragraph doesn’t sound just like Mikey.  Well, that’s as far as I could stand to read.   Michele:Michael.  Hmmmmmmm. From http://scritto.com/mt_group.html: >It