Re: Help!!

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In message <mn.5aa37d67368ebc2b.1980@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Gene E. Bloch <spamfree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes

Ultimately, I suspect that bottom posting is sort of like a secret handshake or wearing the right necktie. Failing one or both of those tests, you're just not one of "us".

It's not; it's common sense.

Actually the issue of correct posting to the Usenet was the subject of a paper published by the Tavistock Institute about seven or eight years ago. If they've got a website, it can probably be found.

From memory, the authors' findings were that the reason why many people have difficulty understanding the incredibly simple guidelines on posting is because many schools don't teach that most important subject of all: philosophy. Many people are not being taught how to think. Arranging thoughts logically does require training of the mind. At its simplest this is writing a letter. A letter of complaint, for example, does require a marshalling of thoughts, arranging of facts, and then pinning them down on paper in a coherent manner.

Many are so ill-equipped for this task that large organizations now encourage their customers to use telephones so that their operators can do their customers' thinking for them: asking them questions in a logical sequence, and so on. And it saves return letter-writing costs or ferreting on their part because their customers are now incapable of supplying all the information necessary to resolve a problem.

Even writing CVs is getting beyond the limited cognitive abilities of many causing them to resort to professional CV writers. The authors cited a boiler-plate software package for writing CVs! A discipline that requires little more than the expression of a few facts and figures written on one side of a *** of paper on a subject that the author ought to be an expert on, and they're sunk.

Good thinking requires good training. I was fortunate to have teachers who trained my mind to work clearly and to arrange facts/ideas and to present them logically. My job depends on it. I don't profess to be a brilliant thinker; the reason my mediocre cognitive ability has made me a millionaire is because so many are worse thinkers than I am. The way society is being structured today ensures that many can muddle their way through life without having to think too much. But when they're presented with the simple communication conventions of the Usenet, which has evolved over quarter of a century as a global forum and therefore requires fairly dynamic thinking to work properly, they're buggered. Not only are the conventions not understood, but the reasoning behind the evolution of those conventions is not understood either.

Firstly: trimming follow-ups to salient points does require the exercise of editorial skill i.e. judgement, and judgement is either instinctive or is acquired through training. Philosophy is the only practical tool to apply that training. Secondly: actually answering a specific point within a post and focussing on that point also requires a trained mind. Confronted with these seemingly insuperable obstacles, the untrained mind simply gives up the unequal struggle and says: "bugger it -- I'll just top-post. Someone else can figure out what I mean.”

Conventions in communication are essential, particular so with Usenet that consists of millions of people world-wide subscribing to around 100,000 newsgroups on an equal number of subjects. For it to work depends on the observation of protocols. The essential protocols that control distribution are imbedded in the headers of a post and not usually within users' control, but control of the content of posts and therefore understanding rests with the users.

To ensure that the majority derive the greatest enjoyment and benefit from the Usenet a few simple conventions exist. They are not difficult to understand or follow if one takes a little trouble and is prepared to show some respect for others. It's important to remember that a post has one author but many readers therefore the majority should be always be considered.

Another advantage is that mastery of those conventions enables one to move with confidence from newsgroup to newsgroup and converse with the world.

The Usenet is a remarkable tool that is worthy of respect rather than the consequences of such muddle-headed thinking.
--
James Follett. Novelist (Callsign G1LXP)
http://www.jamesfollett.dswilliams.co.uk and http://www.marjacq.com


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