Re: [Provocation] are Java programmers unfriendly and harsh people?

On Apr 13, 10:51 pm, Patricia Shanahan <p...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
....
Even the "cn ne1 hlp me" can be handled by simply ignoring them.

I do not feel this is best for either the group, or the
poster.

Why? Simply because the entire nature of posting to usenet
is (for better or worse) changing. The thing that is behind
that change is a growing trend for '1st time posters' to be
posting through web interfaces to usenet (WITUN).

Here is a sample.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.help/browse_frm/thread/b304129362abbdbe/
Yahoo groups

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.help/browse_frm/thread/1d0b26cbed9c9bc5/
Google groups

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.help/browse_frm/thread/d66c7497940f450d/
News Client

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.help/browse_frm/thread/d3959eec91e56946/
Google Groups

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.help/browse_frm/thread/d98ca7fd042c7bcf/
News Client

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.help/browse_frm/thread/ee571b39ebbe280b/
Google Groups

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.help/browse_frm/thread/0c075a53f6195494/
Google Groups

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.help/browse_frm/thread/02067ae5faebb038/
Google Groups

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.help/browse_frm/thread/1e44dbab4694ebea/
Google Groups

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.java.help/browse_frm/thread/6e59ad6033672918/
Google Groups

Of the 'last ten posts to this group'* 80% were
started by people posting from WITUN's (7 from
Google groups, 1 from Yahoo groups).

* That is simply the last ten posts, as represented
in the Google Groups 'list' of comp.lang.java.help,
some of which were 'brought to the top of the list',
due to later replies.

Have any of the folks who are pushing the 'just be nice',
'just ignore them' lines ever posted using a WITUN?**

As someone who has (is), I would like to try and convey
that the experience is different to using a news client
(which I have also done) in many very obvious, and some
more subtle ways.

One of the major differences is that a WITUN poster
is *much* less likely to 'pick things up by infusion'.
To explain. When posting through a news client, I
would generally get the 'latest message list', and
simply keep hitting 'n(ext)', 'n', 'n'.. till I saw
a post that caught my eye. Sometimes that would mean
I might land on a post that looked interesting, yet
I would not have been enticed into reading it purely
by the title. A WITUN user, OTOH, would never see
that post, since it is *largely* by the title that
the user judges whether to invest the time/bytes
in following the link.

Added to that, even when searching for answers, the
WITUN user is less likely to follow a link to any post
that has no replies - since those posts obviously do
not hold the answer for which they are searching.
As such, they are less likely to ever *see* the
mistakes the OP made, that resulted in no replies.

For the usenet newsgroups to remain useful, I think
we must take a more 'proactive' approach to educating
1st time users as to the pitfalls, and the optimal
ways, to go about getting technical answers.

** And for those who want to maintain the "just
ignore them" line, I issue a challenge to use a
WITUN*** for a month, and then "look me in the eye"
and try and repeat that line with conviction.

*** And to those that want to chime and and suggest
I/they use a 'real news client' I say "Drag yourself
(kicking and screaming) into the third millennium"
WITUN's are a way of life - there is no going back.

Andrew T.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Google Groups v/s Usenet: Quick Pros and Cons
    ... Usenet to Google groups. ... Possible to receive individual messages through email as posted ... posting attachments, etc. ...
    (rec.music.indian.misc)
  • Re: New threads!
    ... > compliance with Usenet standards. ... > Using your Microsoft Internet Explorer to post via Google Groups ... It just seems wrong that I have to do this when posting in Britain by what ...
    (uk.business.agriculture)
  • Re: Worldofwar.net - Malicious software
    ... Your or my news client might break the link ... But it's just polite in Usenet ... If it's good netiquette why have I never heard of it before? ... You are changing the subject if you introduce email - it was posting ...
    (alt.games.warcraft)
  • Re: OT: What happened to Rec games pinball?
    ... James Sweet wrote: ... no idea that they're actually posting to the usenet, and quite a large number of people, myself included, have blacklist filtered anything from google groups due to the huge quantity of spam that is/was coming from them. ...
    (rec.games.video.arcade.collecting)
  • Re: Newsreader suggestions
    ... they're posting to USENET. ... Mind if I pluck that para out and use it in one of my Other Voices ... they're posting to "Google Groups" when they're posting to USENET. ...
    (news.software.readers)