************************************************************** * * * CYBERSPACE * * A biweekly column on net culture appearing * * in the Toronto Sunday Sun * * * * Copyright 1999 Karl Mamer * * Free for online distribution * * All Rights Reserved * * Direct comments and questions to: * * * * * ************************************************************** Art of the Kill In the October 15th edition of the Sunday Sun, I gave readers a general overview of killfiles, those handy little news filters that quickly dispatch USENET articles that match a certain offending pattern. Lately, sharing killfile patterns has become popular. A group called alt.killfile has been created to save neophyte users from having to reinvent their own wheel. Here are a few of my own ideas for some effective patterns and some from local experts Val "val@io.org" Dodge (a certified Voice of Reason who recently was honored with a newsgroup called io.fan.val- dodge) and Tom "evans@reptiles.org" Evans (publisher of the hilarious net.scandal mailing list). On both the tin and trn newsreaders, you can create and edit a killfile with Control+K. The syntax in this article is for the trn newsreader although the ideas adapt easily to tin's menu- based approach. The syntax used in trn is /pattern/command:command. What's between the /s is what gets killed. What follows the /s tells trn where to look for the pattern. ":j" means kill threads with the pattern found in the subject line. "f:j" means kill threads with the pattern found in the from line. (For full details on killfiles, take a look at the Killfile FAQ available from eye's site, http://www.interlog.com/eye/Misc/Kooks/killfile.faq) The most common item in killfiles is probably /make money fast/:j. The infamous "make money fast" or MMF thread is a pointless pyramid scheme often reposted by innumerate 1st year university students. Evans maintains /make money/:j in his killfile to catch people who might post a subject like "make money really fast". Sneaky. Dodge kills a mutant variation with /quickcash/:j. I dispatch a lot of other MMF variants with /earn/:j and /business opportunity/:j. Anything with either pattern in the subject is probably a scam. Some Internet sites broadcast nothing but scams and off-topic ads. The worst offender is interramp.com (located in Herndon, Virginia), which seems to be trying to turn every USENET group into a text-based homeshopping network. /interramp.com/f:j in your killfile will handle anything from Interramp. Closer to home an ad for free nude photos started appearing, rather rudely, in tor.general from an Ottawa-area provider called igs.net. When I emailed igs.net's administrator asking him if he could have the ad's poster cease such unwelcome activity, he responded that he didn't give a hoot. That kind of attitude is a good indication a lot of junk will be making its way out of that domain in the near future. Wham. /igs.net/f:j went in the ol' killfile. Sometimes hot news quickly turns into tiresome flames. Evans kills /Windows 95/:j and for good measure he also cans /David Tsubouchi/:j. In the last couple weeks, I've had /O.J./:j and /OJ/:j in my killfile for obvious reasons. Dodge figures /boycott/:j probably nips a lot of future flames in the bud. /Get a life/:j and /repent/:j are safe bets as well. A lot of general idiocy can disposed of with some forethought. Dodge believes in trashing all messages with three or more exclamation marks in the subject. I'm less kind. Anything with more than one exclamation mark is likely not worth reading. So take your pick /!!/:j or /!!!/:j. If you're really bitter, like I am, /please read/:j and /important/:j are good things to kill. The message may indeed be important but nine out of ten times if the person has to beg you to read it, it's not worth it.