On 06/09/07, Dinesh Joshi dinesh.a.joshi@gmail.com wrote:
And if *you* ( and everyone of you ) think back, then you too were newbies at some point. Nobodys a born genius...
You don't have to be born a genius, but you do have to prepare yourself before you join a new community. The community isn't going to change to accomodate a new person, it's only after new people become part of the community that they can affect change.
FWIW, my first encounter with usenet etiquette was a mail I received from Tom Christiansen when I first posted to comp.lang.perl.misc. Since newsgroups had no membership, the best time to mail new users was when they first posted. The mail introduced me to jeopardy style posting among other things. I then read up on the smart questions FAQ and various usenet posting guidelines, including the list rules that are mailed out to all new members.
I'd expect new members of this list to, at the very least, have gone through the list rules and guidelines that were mailed to them when they joined. Failing that, this is what ends up happening.
Philip
PS: It appeared to me as if Raju's response was directed at me, and not at the OP and Kenneth's was directed at Raju.