In article ,
"Capitol" writes:
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.

Myth 1) Any newsreader is in any way responsible for what anyone posts.

Myth 2) Bottom posting is the necessary thing.

Bottom posting must be a term coined by top posters who don't understand
why top posting doesn't work very well. Bottom posting is just as silly
as top posting.

1) Bottom posting is an historical accident of news readers which have
become obsolete.

No historical newsreaders ever forced any type of posting, just like
no current ones do. That deficiency has always been the human, not the
tool.

3) The new standard is Microsoft,

Microsoft doesn't have that word in its company dictionary.

Myth 3 Rigid rules of conduct are necessary.

There are no rigid rules. People have spent time working out how
to communicate effectively. That's where the guidelines come from.

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)

If you count mistakes as negative numbers, this post of yours is
probably nearly -100%.

2) The content is the important factor not the position.

The context is part of that. Try moving all my comments to the
top of this posting and then appending your original underneath.
That would be a really silly thing to do, wouldn't it?

3) It's a public news group with a free will user base. Rules, and rudeness
are totally unnecessary.

Order is necessary, and is the reason this newsgroup has survived
as a useful resource when many haven't (uk.legal probably being the
biggest loss in the uk newsgroups).

Myth 4) Snipping is always necessary.
1) Memory and bandwidth are now such that snipping is totally unnecessary in
a top posting system.

My time to wade through loads of irrelevant nested quoted text means
I'll likely just skip that article.

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!

Struggling ISP's have just let their news service fall to bits.

3) Snipping can on occasions distort the reasoning of the participants.

That, like no snipping, is just another form of incorrect snipping.

Myth 5) We should never consider change.

It's kind of Dawinistic.
Feel free to try a change. If it works, people will take to it.

I find top posting very useful -- it gives me a an instant impression
of the poster without me having to bother reading a word, which
depending to some extent on the newsgroup, is usually very accurate.
This is more true in computer related newsgroups, but holds in most
technical newsgroups including this one.

Myth 6) You want everybody to read your post.

I assume you want those following the thread to do so or you wouldn't
bother posting.

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.

It must be terrible to lead a life where you are ashamed of what you say.
The credibility of anyone who tries to hide their identity is pretty
non-existant, and consequently their contributions start from a much lower
value base.

BTW, I found out after getting my current job that that my usenet
postings were a significant factor in me getting it, so it was a good
thing my employer could identify me on Usenet.

--
Andrew Gabriel
Consultant Software Engineer