Now that I've finished polishing her copper pot.
OK, here's tonight's treat.
Hopefully most of this will be heresy to the usenet pedants, but as most of
them will have gone into ostrich mode, I guess I'll just have to bear the
disappointment ungracefully.

I obviously didn't bother to read all the replies, other than Martin's but
lets try and dispel a few myths which seem to have occurred.


Myth 1) a large percentage of newsreaders are bottom oriented.

1) The current newsreader used in say 98% of PC's world wide is OE.
2) OE ( and now Mozilla) are top and middle posting systems.
2) If this group does not show 98% of users using OE, then for a public
consumer information oriented group it is a failure! Think about it!


Myth 2) Bottom posting is the necessary thing.

1) Bottom posting is an historical accident of news readers which have
become obsolete.
2) The minority news readers are the only filing system which works
backwards.
3) The new standard is Microsoft, by virtue of market penetration. You may
not like it, but it's the real world. ( It's also sometimes got better spell
checking than some other products!)
4) For short queries top posting is to be preferred using the majority OE
newsreader.
5) For long questions, middle posting is used, but it is read from the top,
like any other document.
6) When did you last see a book which you read backwards. Right to left,
yes, backwards, no!


Myth 3 Rigid rules of conduct are necessary.

1) The average information content is less than 1% of the posts. ( Make that
0.1% if it's an interchange between Andy and IMM)
2) The content is the important factor not the position.
3) It's a public news group with a free will user base. Rules, and rudeness
are totally unnecessary.


Myth 4) Snipping is always necessary.

1) Memory and bandwidth are now such that snipping is totally unnecessary in
a top posting system.
2) Maybe we can get some of our readers back to work if we all try to use
more bandwidth and force telecomm companies to increase their capacity!
3) Snipping can on occasions distort the reasoning of the participants.


Myth 5) We should never consider change.

1) There is a term for the people who think in this way, Luddites, if I
recall correctly. I watched much of British industry applying this strategy.
It no longer exists!
2) The new standard is Microsoft, perhaps we should consider change.
3) Mozilla did it!

( Aside, amongst my other systems,( and no, I'm not a computer buff) I also
have a Linux system using Mandrake 9, it's about as consumer friendly as
Windows1, which was never issued. Linux will not be around for at least 3
years, and the consumer version will use a top posting newsreader!)

Myth 6) You want everybody to read your post.

1) If I wanted everybody to read my post, I'd buy newspaper advertising.
2) Reading is a free will activity.
3) Book burning is a long established tradition of pedants, I've never
noticed that it changed anything, but it keeps them happy for a while

..
Myth 7) People can be changed.

1) Forget it! I've tried to change her for 50 years!
2) Cooks leave kitchens. Good laugh this one, you people are amateurs at the
flaming cooks game! Go and play in the international big league, get some
experience and try again. (I'll apologise in advance for this next bit for
the softer readers. I quite liked the concept of the "asshole" comment, but
felt it could only earn a mark of "could do better", otherwise described as
crap!)

A couple of other points which I noticed,
1) AIUI Argos changed their website because the original used cookies and
many users didn't!
2) Microsoft don't own the internet. No, they don't, but like it or not, MS
(and not always for the better) have made it the success which it is today.
3) A large number of the contributors are computer or engineering people.
This next comment is meant to be helpful.

I suggest that you

a) Don't use your own name on a news group, particularly if you are going to
be abusive.
b) Don't( if you are a contractor or somebody selling to others) put your
website address up.
c) Don't put your CV on the net.

The reason for saying this is that businesses now regularly run a Google
check on names to see what this turns up. You may be the best thing since
BOFH, but remember that the MD of the customer is generally a cunning,
talented and ruthless *******, and he is terrified of the Chairman. Your new
contract can be lost if you have been observed to write the wrong thing. If
you put up your website address, the second thing that the software manager
does is to inspect it for content and spelling. Next they dissect the
TML --AND-- the comments. Try it on a few others!! I know, I've done it!
I've taken decisions based on the way the information conveyed hit me. If
you put up your CV, under Google, it's there for ever. If you change it,
then two CV's exist! The customer will read it/them and it may not be the
same lies that you are using on this contract bid. All successful
contractors ( and I have been one for 30years) rewrite their CV every few
months but they don't publish it!

d) If you are going to be in the contracting business, join the PCG, not
perfect but better than nothing and recognise that you need to be able to
survive for up to 3 years with only very low levels of income. I worked like
a dog early on to get the reserves to meet this requirement, they were
tough to build, but it can be done!
Be prepared to take a permie job for 6 months to retrain in an
additional line of work (e.g. programmer becomes video artist). You don't
have to tell them that you're looking for the next contract! I've known
contractors who have had a sideline in car repairs! If you're prepared to
get your hands dirty, the money is there! Of course, you have to tell the
Inland Revenue about it.

There, I hope that those who were waiting for the next piece of comment are
not too disappointed.
Regards
Capitol

Dave Plowman wrote in message ...
In article ,
Essjay001 wrote:
every office I have ever worked in MOD or government the latest
correspondence is placed on top of the file and that has been a
convention since before the computer was invented.

As, indeed, happens with a new post here which will be at the top of the
file called the subject. But in the days of hand typed memos etc in an
office, it wasn't commonplace to repeat the previous posts on the subject,
merely to refer to them.

Now I don't know what you used before the computer was invented, but I
think I have pointed to paper if not directly

The ability to store and retrieve previous material easily that a
wordprocessor provides makes for the possibility of new rules...

--
*Why are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn