8/4     So I have a few questions.  Why is ilyas zilching the bottom part of
        motd.public, and with a script too it seems?  Is ilyas also the same
        guy who was nuking it for out-of-order deletions, or was that jblack?
        \_ Not with a script.  I am zilching it because someone deleted a thread
           I was (still) participating in, while leaving the threads below it
           be.  I ll stop if you give me a good reason why I should.  Or perhaps
           what I should do is whine to the politburo about how my posts are
           getting victimized, like someone suggested yesterday. -- ilyas
           \_ How very libertarian "I'm not getting my way so I'll throw a
              fit and mess with everyone else's posts" of you.  Go Ilyas!!
              \_ Indeed.  If you were me, what would you do?  Btw, please
                 sign your name, so we can try your approach on your posts.
                 I am not, btw, messing with everyone's posts.  I am merely
                 interpreting a deletion of a thread as a sign that the entire
                 section of the motd past that point has gotten stale and needs
                 garbage-collected.  -- ilyas
                 \_ So anyone replying to a thread should move it to the top
                    of the motd, to indicate its freshness?  When did this
                    start?
                    \_ No they shouldn't.  People who perform the legidimate
                    \_ No they shouldn't.  People who perform the legitimate
                       public service of cleaning up old threads tend to only
                       deal with the bottom that isn't getting modified anymore.
                       I have no beef with them.  You are putting words in
                       my mouth. -- ilyas
                 \_ If I were you, what would I do?  I'd try to figure out
                    why everyone thinks I'm a jackass.
                    \_ Well, if you think I am doing something wrong, at least
                       you know who to blame.  You seem to have no unkind words
                       for the anonymous jackasses who fuck up motd threads,
                       which I find interesting.  You wouldn't happen to be
                       one of them, would you? -- ilyas
           \_ Seems punitive, especially of parties who didn't participate
              in the thread (I assume it was the Partha-Kantian one).  I am
              not sure how fair it is to punish disinterested third-parties.
              \_ Yes it does seem punitive.  I don't think it's a good
                 reason for stopping though.  I don't know of another way to
                 'encourage' certain motd idiots to not delete stuff out of
                 order. -- ilyas
                 \_ Punishing the deleter seems fair.  The same logic that
                    would justify the punishment of others could lead to all
                    kinds of unpleasant applications.  I don't think the
                    inability to punish just the delete would justify the
                    punishment of all.
                    \_ Seems like we disagree, then.  I have no way of
                       punishing the deleters even if I knew who they all were.
                       You are right, if you take what I am doing to its logical
                       conclusion, the motd becomes extremely unpleasant.
                       That's sort of the point.  Don't delete non-stale
                       threads to avoid unpleasantness.  Or, to phrase it
                       another way "if you fuck up someone's posts, you are
                       really hurting the motd as a whole -- don't do it."
                         -- ilyas
                       \_ It's probably not difficult to figure out who
                          deleted your thread (repeated reinstatement, forcing
                          the deleter into a predictable behavior pattern), if
                          you wanted to.  Having done that, you could either
                          selectively punish that person by deleting his
                          subsequent posts, or you can at least hold his name
                          up to public scrutiny.
                          \_ I could, probably, if it's a single person.  (I
                             don't think it is). But
                             public scrutiny will not encourage anybody to
                             change their behavior (it's certainly not
                             encouraging me), and I have no desire to maintain
                             an error-prone script to try to determine who
                             posts what, and selectively delete a wrong person's
                             post.  I think my method works better.  It occurs
                             to me this argument is already occupying too much
                             space here, on the motd.  If you have something
                             constructive to add to address the problem of
                             selective deletions, just email me and I ll be
                             happy to discuss more.  To people deleting active
                             threads: please don't do it, you aren't helping
                             anyone. -- ilyas
                             \_ I hate the politics purgers as much or more
                                than you do.  getting pissed at them doesn't
                                help.  they love that.  here's what works:
                                purge a unix-related thread for every politics
                                thread they kill.  This is the only thing
                                these fuckers understand, and it works.
                                The typical politics purger is some dick who
                                wants the whole motd to be a little unix
                                nerd forum where we all talk about drivers
                                all day.
                   \_ One of you is guilty, all of you shall be held
                      responsible till the guilty one comes forward.
        \_ My apologies to jblack for impugning his honor, btw.