I fell off my chair on that one! Thanks for the chuckle; I really needed that! Loved the picture. I'm on dial-up at 26400 kbs but it was worth it.
Also, thanks to the others for pointing out how all this usenet crap works. I must admit, I had no idea what the reasons were for not posting pictures or HTML. I just thought it was some control-freak moderator type stuff. Now I understand. Gracias!
Unless moderator in in the name of a newsgroup it is not moderated.
There are too many people out there who only know how they work, and what they want. They flaunt the conventions, and post binaries in non-binary groups, use html, top-post replies, fail to trim quotations, or don't quote at all. They do this because they don't see how the conventions, customs, and societal rules are relevant, and unilaterally decide to ignore them. Reactions to those folks are why sometimes the reaction to someone who honestly didn't know seems overly strong.
There are actually some good reasons behind all of the "rules". Not everyone is using the newest version of some feature-bloated Windows software, yet because so many people are, it's sometimes easy to forget about client-side issues such as usenet software that doesn't like html. And since most people have never been a server admin, they have little frame of reference of the server-side issues involved.
There are relatively few moderated newsgroups. The majority of newgroups exist only because people follow conventions. There are some newsgroups out there where convention was ignored to the point that the name of the group has become meaningless. They now are nothing but spam and punks who think their anarchists. They got that way because the neighbors didn't care.
Most of the time seeing the conventions modeled is all newcomers need. "Gee, I see 24,000 posts, and not one binary. I guess I shouldn't be posting binaries here." But occasionally someone either decides to go ahead and do something "just this once", or they do it because they didn't even notice that no one else does that kind of thing. And that's when huge threads like this pop-up.
Is it a distraction to spend so much time on the mechanics of Usenet, and it's societal conventions? Maybe. But based on the number of posts so quickly made on this subject, it's not something that isn't of interest to many.
No one has done anything horrific. No one died because of a couple of html posts, or because of a binary (that was filtered out of the feed many people get) that was posted. It was the equivalent of walking down the hall on the left instead of the right. No one is banished from the hallway because they walked on the wrong side, even if there was a minor collision. We all just continue on, a little more aware that we're not the only one who's using the hallway.
Also, some people skim through newsgroups by hitting CTRL+U, which automatically takes them to the next message. This is particularly helpful when there are a lot of older posts on the server and you don't want to keep scrolling to find the next unread one. If an HTML or binary post is among them, the CTRL+U method will download it before the reader is even aware it is an HTML/binary post.
--S.
I don't know why the simple netiquette rules should be so hard to follow. A mistake now and then is expected, but the declarations of being able to do exactly as one wants, regardless of the rest of the group, escapes me.
--S.
do you know where i will be able to purchase a 50ft garden knome to sit next to my bill and ben the flower pot men statues
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