Loyal Barber wrote: > Gary, > There are lots of people who care about top posting, me included. If > to you as you say it is really no big deal, then it would be pretty > simple for you to put your post at the end where it belongs. Many > of the folks from whom you might want help are reading this in pine > or some other text based email program. Furthermore, if you post > using Yahoo instead of "reply" on your email editor, you will find > that Yahoo does put you after the original automatically. Please > be considerate of others and follow a simple, common set of rules. > > Thanks, > Loyal > >
This used to be referred to as 'AOL Syndrome'... The newbies sign onto ISP's, and after a while cruising the Web, decide to join a technical newsgroup of some sort, like Linux. Not bothering to read the FAQ, or reading it but not caring to heed what it says, the newbies decide that 1) The technical list is a 'help desk' of some sort, that their ISP's monthly fee has paid for, and they are entitled to prompt and obedient service for the people who developed the list, and 2) ...that the list is a Democracy, in which all participants' opinions are equal... that the newest newbie's opinion, how to operate a technical list is just as valid, and carries just as much weight, as the opinions of the founding members of the list. Because the newbies outnumber the more experienced members, usually by a factor of 10 or more, even if only 2 in 10 of the newcomers choose to rewrite the rules, to suit their individual preferences, it is enough to compromise the usefulness of the list. Then the old-timers become frustrated, and stop offering support to the newbies, because the 'new rules' are not conducive to efficient communication, and because they are tired of being treated like waiters and busboys, who exist solely to 'serve up' information 'on demand'. You wind up with a list where newbies are the only ones offering other newbies any technical advice, and the advice being offered is considerably less accurate than was the case when the old-timers were actively running the show. This is the 'Democratic Classroom' in action, where the students, the teaching assistants, and the professors all have an equal, democratic vote, what is the correct answer. Computing demands that the 'right answers' actually work, though... not that they are simply the 'most popular answers', by group consensus. This leaves the newbies in a position where they no longer have to bother asking the old-timers any questions, and the old-timers no longer have to bother explaining anything to newbies. Instead, newbies can RTFM, Google, and learn from trial and error... ...or not. -- -wittig http://www.robertwittig.com/ . http://robertwittig.net/ . http://robertwittig.org/ To unsubscribe from this list, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] & you will be removed. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
