From: David Stinson on Thurs 25 Aug 2005 14:41

If I killfile the half-dozen guys who are always fighting in here,
will there be anyone left?

Absolutely YES. But, they will ALL be in various Archives
somewhere, in places other than Google.*

The "killfile" feature affects ONLY YOUR particular browser's cache.
Filtering out "objectionable" postings will leave you deaf/sightless
to what others' opinions are and only reinforce whatever your pre-
conceived opinions might be. Call it a subset of bigotry...it can't
be much of anything else.

"Killfiling" is good for things like spam about things NOT related
to the main subject of a newsgroup. There it would be justified.
But, justified to eliminate opinions which are contrary to your
own? That's rather egocentric.

One major problem with "killfiling" is that OTHERS can comment at
will on what you've written...and you will NOT know about that
unless someone includes a "killfiled" person's quotes. That makes
you vulnerable to all kinds of things in addition to adding a time
delay on some particular argument. Some in here have been doing
that already. It's sometimes called the "ostrich syndrome;" i.e.,
burying the head in sand to cut out the 'awful noise' of contrary
opinions. All that gets one is sand in the ears. :-)

* There are several "private" archive sites on the 'web which both
download newsgroups and permit "discussion" on those, sometimes
yielding "challenges" from the upset/outraged/disturbed inviduals
who want to fight about a subject. Few of those archive sites have
two-way interaction with the 'web so it winds up a bunch of "locals"
thinking they are arguing with you...yet not going any farther than
the local archive. :-)

Essentially, "killfiling" is just self-deception. It may be
part of an egocentric attitude, might not. But denial that
contrary opinions exist is still just self-deception. Such may
make you feel better, but that is only inside your own head.
The rest of the world continues on, like it or not. :-)

You are, of course, free to do whatever you want.

you are