There’s been a bit of a disturbance on the New Mars forums I administrate. In the past two days someone has signed up and made 40 posts, all of which are hostile to space and Mars exploration. People got upset and complained (very politely though). I decided to do a bit of research.
One peculiar thing about this newbie was that he managed to do a huge amount of writing in only two days – too huge. A quick search on Google Groups revealed that he was merely reposting old material that he’d sent to Usenet several years ago. Problem solved.
Here is a copy of my message sent to the newbie. Firm, but fair, I thought. I certainly don’t want to discourage debate on the forums and I don’t mind if people disagree with what people say – we already have a couple of those types of people on the forums – but I do care if people repost old material and don’t seem to be prepared to engage in useful discussion.
mssv 