Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.kodak.com!news-nysernet-16.sprintlink.net!news-east1.sprintlink.net!news-peer1.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!btnet-peer!btnet!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!sidaway.demon.co.uk!Sherilyn From: Sherilyn Newsgroups: demon.local,news.answers Subject: [demon.local] Sigflame FAQ Followup-To: poster Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 03:14:36 +0000 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Distribution: world Message-ID: References: <3686f049.69858781@news.tcp.co.uk> <912313099snz@broke.demon.co.uk> <36624021.155834538@news.tcp.co.uk> <912405910snz@broke.demon.co.uk> <3665f833.911861@news.tcp.co.uk> <912629398snz@broke.demon.co.uk> <366d1d51.15635622@news.tcp.co.uk> <912811888snz@broke.demon.co.uk> <366e655f.12577605@news.tcp.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: sidaway.demon.co.uk Summary: This posting answers some questions about sig flames that may occur to new subscribers to demon.local X-NNTP-Posting-Host: sidaway.demon.co.uk:158.152.43.216 X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 912914174 nnrp-08:28530 NO-IDENT sidaway.demon.co.uk:158.152.43.216 X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: Turnpike (32) Version 3.05 Lines: 87 Archive-name: usenet/satire/sigflame Posting-Frequency: monthly to demon.local,news.answers Last-modified: 1998/11/23 Version: 1.1 URL: http://www.sidaway.demon.co.uk/usenet/satire/sigflame.txt Copyright: (c) 1998 Sherilyn Maintainer: Sherilyn 0. Introduction: Why a Sigflame FAQ? Sigflaming has become an institution on demon.local, and so it's time we had a nice FAQ to explain sigflaming to newbies and start them off on the right foot. 1. What is a big sig? Anything longer than the recommended USENET maximum of four lines. The sig starts after the delimiter ("-- " on a line by itself). 2. What is a sigflame? It's a USENET posting that follows up to another to complain that the first posting had a big sig. 3. Why complain about big sigs? It's the best way to get more posts with big sigs, and to promote the ongoing discussion of sigfile size. 4. Why complain about big sigs in demon.local? It's the best way to get lots of lovely posts with big sigs, and discussions of sigfile size, in demon.local. Only trolls and troublemakers could find fault with this. 5. Why not complain about big sigs outside demon.local? This has been tried, but with limited success (see 9). Besides, the net effect might be to encourage people with big sigs, which are a limited resource, to post _outside_ demon.local, and that would dilute the target material. So if you _must_ make a sigflame outside demon.local, at least mention that you post in demon.local, and explain that we always flame big sigs in demon.local. 6. Why not just ignore people with big sigs? They might go away. 7. Okay, so why not ask people to post with big sigs? They might post with small sigs just to be perverse. 8. Will Demon Internet do anything about this? They'll bill us at a flat rate for this big sigs service. But they seldom contribute big sigs. To make this work. you have to contribute your own sigflames. 9. Will nanau do anything about this? NANAU subscribers have been known to have a quiet chuckle, but they seldom contribute a big juicy sig. 10. Will spam cancelers do anything about this? See 9. One spam canceller is thought to have spam cancelled one especially enthusiastic sig flamer. Talk about warped priorities! 11. What about bandwidth? In article , B.E.Newsam writes ... >As I'm sure Piers will tell you soon, "bandwidth is not the issue". It's >the law, and that's that. Bandwidth is not the issue. The issue is B I G S I G S END -- Sherilyn