Ilias is a character on ruby-talk / comp.lang.ruby that is dominating threads right now. Some consider him a troll, others just a loon. Either way, he is ruining the signal:noise ration. He did the same on comp.lang.lisp and they drove him out by ignoring him after only 3 months. In that 3 month span however, he wrote 518 different posts (according to google groups). That is horrid. We shouldn’t let him do that to comp.lang.ruby.
Here is what I suggest. Create a mail signature or reply template with advice to ignore Ilias and no longer respond to him. Every time someone responds to him, email that person with the standard response. If enough people pick this up, and every time someone responds to Ilias they get 10+ form letters asking them not to, it should do a quick enough job of discouraging further threads.
Suggested Response
[some stuff]
Please stop responding to Ilias, he is crazy. If you stop talking to him, he will go away.
If you don’t believe me, check out this:
http://www.tfeb.org/lisp/mad-people.html
Especially:
Ilias is currently (17-Sep-2002) being almost entirely ignored and is crying alone to himself, while trying to join in various threads. With luck if this continues he will get bored and wander off to annoy people in some other newsgroup. He is one of the most malignant posters to cll in recent history - between 27-Aug-2002 and 24-Sep-2002 threads begin by him were about 1/4 of the articles in cll.
Again, this man is insane, so please, please, please refrain from replying to his posts, or in threads he starts.
If you would, please join us is fighting this problem. For more details, see:
http://www.zenspider.com/Languages/Ruby/IliasIsCrazy.html
Thank You