While reading the information below, can you
think of the names of the netcops in this
newsgroup?

Typical techniques of a Net Cop (aka netcop):

Step 1.: Advise almost any person that provides
help to a poster that since they are not doctors or
medical experts that they should not provide
advice to people that request help.

Step 2.: If that  same person helps someone else,
the netcop will usually use ridicule and "name calling"
to cause the person to stop posting and to stop helping
people that request help. An example would be calling
the poster a "doctor wanna be that has a serious
psychological problem."

Step 3: If that same person helps someone else,
the netcop may make threats or take other even
more drastic actions. One netcop threatened to
sue a poster. Another netcop revealed the home
address of one of the posters.

Netcops feel that they are providing an important
service. They seem to feel that they are making
sure that posters that request help are only
getting advice from doctors and medical experts
that provide excellent medical advice.

What's the end result of the actions of netcops?

I now subscribe to about 7 medical related
newsgroups. On a typical day, there may only
be one or two messages in those newsgroups.
In some of those newsgroups, there will be
NO new messages.

The typical subscribers to newsgroups don't
want to become victims of one or more netcops
so they don't provide advice to people that request
help. If they do provice advice, it's usually to
tell the posters to visit their doctor since netcops
don't attack them for providing that sort of advice.
Netcops have succeeded in closing down many
medical newsgroups that could have become
valuable resources for people to discuss
their problems and get the opinions of many
different posters. It's my opinion that posters
can easily separate good advice from bad advice.
Netcops seem to feel that people requesting help
are stupid and therefore are not capable of
separating good advice from bad advice.

What should you do when you become the victim
of a netcop?

One of the posters writes NETCOP in response
to any message posted by a netcop. I usually
exchange posts with them but I have found out
from experiece that is a waste of time and energy.

The typical subscriber will stop helping people
or even stop subscribing to a newsgroup after they are
attacked by a netcop. That's also a solution but it means
that you allowed the netcop to win.

You could also download this report and keep it stored
in a file on your computer. If you see a post that was
written by a netcop, post this report. Feel free to  make
any changes in this report.