On 24 Apr 97, Charles Mclane wrote to Kevin Smith:
 KS>> I was wondering what would cause windows 3.1 to give me a
 KS>> memory parity error?
Mr. Mclane.  DO YOU HAVE EYES, SON???
On March 22, and again on March 29, the moderator for this echo wrote you 
*personally* on this echo and told you this is the WRONG ECHO for technical 
discussions on computers!  *I* also told you that in a message dated April 7. 
How many times does it take??  Back then in late March, the thread you were 
involved in concerned certain techincal aspects of Dell computers.  Now you 
are asking Windows questions and other computer related questions.
There are at least half a dozen echos in Fidonet devoted to technical 
discussions and Q&A about computers.  And in those echos, there may be 
lurking, absolute *wizards* who can answer your questions.  Why aren't you 
asking these questions there?  Why post them *here* in violation of this 
echo's rules?
Perhaps the reason is simple.  Maybe the sysop of the BBS you call doesn't 
*carry* any national "techie" echos.  Maybe he carries only a very few echos, 
and this one on collectables is one of the few he carries.  If that were so, 
you might come to the conclusion that entering your message in *any* echo, 
even if it is off topic, may certainly be better than not entering your 
message *at all*.  At least if you enter it, even it is off topic, you still 
*might* get an answer from someone, which, if you didn't enter it at all, you 
wouldn't even stand a chance at that.  (After all, it's not YOUR fault your 
sysop doesn't carry any technical echos....)
Could this be your situation and thoughts?  If so then you better think 
again. You will NOT get any replies to your questions here.  This echo is 
devoted to COLLECTABLES - you know, things like toys, baseball cards, 
antiques, etc.  NOT computers!  So what should you do?  Well, if the sysop of 
your board doesn't carry any of those technical echos, you should TELL HIM to 
bring some in. Tell him you have a critical need for techie echos.  You will 
find most sysops most accommodating on such requests - all you have to do is 
ask.  Now if you don't do that, but instead continue to ask your questions 
here, then I will assume you are just being selfish and self centered, and 
don't give a dang about anyone else on this echo.  If that becomes apparent, 
I am sure the moderator of this echo will wind up banning you from this 
conference altogether.  And he can do it.  All he has to do is write the 
sysop of the board you call, and ask him to block your access to this echo, 
and you'll be *gone*.  Just like that.
So once and for all, after 3 warnings, take your off topic messages somewhere 
else.  If you want to talk collectables, feel free to be here and feel 
welcome, but anything other than that, please go away.
To Paul:  I don't mean to step in any moderator toes, so please forgive me 
for the above message.  I did have a reason thoguh.  In the last 170 messages 
here (they're all still on my board), this person and related threads have 
occupied over 15 messages - that's about 10% of the echo's volume,   I don't 
pay my NEC to bring in this echo for me so I can read techie stuff here. I 
carry techie echos for that.  And most of those I tend not to read.  I just 
bring them in for my callers.  I just wanted to make it abundantly clear to 
Mr. Mclane that I find his continued off topic behavior excessively annoying. 
I did not mean to, or intend to, be offensive to you in any way, nor did I 
want to step in your moderator shoes.  As an active participant in this echo, 
I only wanted my voice to be heard both as a sysop and as a normal person. 
But if I need to apologize for anything to you Paul, I apologize in advance.
--- GoldED 2.50
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