From: rnk@cbnews.cb.att.com (ram.n.kumar)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: Self-Appointed policeman, judge, jury and executioner
Date: 9 Oct 92 18:47:04 GMT
Article-I.D.: cbnews.1992Oct9.184704.15455
Organization: AT&T

In article <1992Oct9.142340.20036@ennews.eas.asu.edu> sridhar@enuxhb.eas.asu.edu (Sridhar Venkataraman) writes:
In article <1992Oct9.142340.20036@ennews.eas.asu.edu> you write:
>rnk@cbnews.cb.att.com (ram.n.kumar) writes:
>


>) Light hearted? Really? Do not try to convince me.
>
>) Call your loved ones using the same terms you used to
>) label others repeatedly. See if they buy your light-hearted-joke story!
>
>Sigh. Check out rec.humor.funny sometime. 
>
No comment.


>) Why the hell do you care to flame people for such insignificant reasons,
>) if you are not in some sense policing the net? If you do not want
>) to read a note just move on. Or, learn to look at the index page first,
>) select only those notes that interest you and read them.
>
>Though I principally disagree with Prem having posted 3 such messages
>in a single day,
>
First, "you" in the above description referred to the another netter.

My concern was not just the number of flames on test notes.
The tone of these flames and the choice of labels bothered me more than
anything else.


>I thought his message was clear enough to the newbies
>to spend some effort to find material to post on the net.
>
The message was very clear and loud. No doubt about it.
The question is: Was there a better way? I do think that
the same goal could easily have been achieved without using questionable
words to label people.


>FYI, for all
>you know, AT&T might be patenting the 'notes' you use. So please ask
>the appropriate persons and let us know if we could use it.
>Since we all possess lousy software, you will be doing a service.
>
Chances are my software is probably no better than yours.
I'll ask around to see if mine is any different.


>Moral of the story:  Noone uses the same software!
>
I did not think about that possibility. My fault.


>) If someone who is not familiar with news software or even computers,
>) what is wrong with someone posting a test note, just to get started or
>) as they call it, to get their feet wet first? What kind of a welcome mat
>) are you rolling out for their very first test note?
>
>Check out alt.test, misc.test, ... The names imply that they are test
>groups. If they are not please let me know.
>
>If you weren't asked by your news administrator to read
>news.announce.newusers, tell him that he should. If you may ask why,
>it is the general consensus of news administrators. You aren't allowed
>to cross the road until you are taught how to. news.announce.newusers
>is in essence the distilled wisdom of the net. 
>
I agree with what you are saying. Even so if someone did post a test note
he/she still deserves and should be treated with some respect.
I don't think that usenet advocates rudeness to point out what probably
are honest mistakes.

How many of us learn driving from a licensed driving school?
How many of us do it another way?


>BTW, I personally form opinions about people about their written
>material and not guessing whether they are male, female or whether they
>are old or young etc. That is a wonderful feature of Usenet/Email
>communications. So please expect respect based on your postings.
>Nothing is mandatory here. Give and take. That is Usenet's motto.
>
>
I agree with you that respect should depend on the contents
of a posting. You can also turn that around and say that the degree of
disrespect shown should only depend on what is being said.

The question I raised was whether or not the test notes that had no
content at all (a boundary case), deserved such extreme
disrespect  and justified harsh, totally baseless, characterizations
of its authors.
 

>You can have your last word.
>
>Sridhar.
>
I appreciate your comments.

No. I was not looking for a fight with anyone. Just to make it absolutely
clear, I would like to state that the intent behind my postings
on this subject was not to portray
myself as a Mr.NiceGuy or to put down any netter.

I did not have too much time to edit/proof read  my earlier postings.
I noticed much later that there were several typographical and other
errors. Would like to thank netters for not focussing on such trivial
aspects (and for not using those to flame me)!.


Thanks again.
Ram Kumar
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