On Feb 12, 8:19 am, Wilko wrote:
Moby Dick wrote:
On Feb 11, 9:56 pm, "Moby Dick" wrote:
On Feb 11, 6:26 pm, John Fereira wrote: "Moby Dick" wrote in news:1171238268.607939.4800
@h3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
I'm dictating anything. I was responding to your condescending tone.
Now, I think I see why membership is down.
Wow. I must have stepped on some nerves. I use Google and I used
keywords to find this group. If usenet doens't support that, then it
must be primitive. Furthermore, Google asked me to "subscribe" hence
my notion of membership.

Usenet is indeed primitive, in some respects, in that it existed and was
very popular way *before* the world wide web and serch machines like
Google became popular. Google Groups happens to have a big archive of
usenet posts over the years (depending upon which group you look at),
but it is in no way the only (or the best) way to participate in
newsgroups. Also, just because you use Google Groups to post in this
group doesn't mean that you need a Google user ID to post in newsgroups
or participate in usenet.

On the other hand, newsgroups are seeing a revival through the binary
newsgroups, because a lot of illegal software, movies and music is
posted there nowadays. So primitive is a relative term in this respect.



I have no idea what "top posting" is. Am I doing that?

It's posting above the text of the ones you are replying to... and yep,
you do that.

In my own defense, I thought I was being helpful. The thread was
bemoaning the lack of postings. I observed that perhaps the group
needed more members and suggested two possible ways to do that *which
apparently is not allowed unless you've been in the group "since
1985."

The amount of posts on this newsgroup have been on the decline since a
couple of nasty individuals decided to turn this newsgroup into their
private playground, with them basically being the local bully. Since
newsgroups aren't moderated and the basic "rules" of netiquette aren't
being enforced, it's pretty easy for those who want to damage a
community to wreak havoc here. Since many other forums outside usenet do
provide moderators, admins or whatever they are called, this kind of
behaviour is pretty rare there in comparison to usenet, which is part of
the reason why so many people moved from usenet groups to other forums.
So yes, there may be some nostalgia involved, but by and large, this
newsgroup still has some helpful individuals hanging around on it, some
of which have met in real life and some of which are even friends.

I am truely a newbie. I don't own a kayak but would like to. That's
why my other postings. My wife and I kayaked on our last vacation. We
rented.

Everyone started out as a newbie once... :-)

Try to see a community for what it is, and if you are willing to help it
change, participate.

Imagine walking into a pub for the first time, and yelling from the
doorway: hey, why aren't your seats pink, why don't the barmen stand in
front of the bar and shouldn't you have a sign outside that says
"welcome to men and women, truckers, bikers, motorists, those with or
without a job, anyone with or without a hobby and people with and
without disabilities" instead of "highway 99 pub"?
On top of that, you call the establishment a bit primitive since they
don't serve fine wines and the toilets are missing seats...

Now imagine the response from some of the bikers or truckers in there,
who have been coming there for decades, after hearing you say that. :-)

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---http://kayaker.nl/

Thanks for the explanation. This is my first time NOT top-posting
which I think makes it harder to read from Google groups but here
goes...

I did not intend to be a troublemaker. Sorry if I was/am perceived as
such.

I like your metaphor but I think it changes a little bit from my point
of view. I think your metaphor should be.....

Imagine walking into a pub for the first time, and sitting down to
have a drink when you overhear the few patrons there start complaining
that not enough people come into the bar anymore or, at least, they
don't want to converse like they used to. Wanting to become part of
the group, I say that the bar owner should put up a sign and do a
little advertising since that's what other bars do. Then thay say I
have no right to criticise since I haven't ever been in the bar and
they've been patrons since the dinosaur age. Hmmm. Ok I'll shut up and
I'll also probably not ever come back.

Cheers.

BTW, I think we've beaten this to a pulp. I don't intend to add to
this thread anymore (unless severely provoked).