In Praise of this Newsgroup :-)

[Johanna]

Why I find that this group is a much better source of information than
equivalent websites:

*People are helping because they enjoy helping. Not to make money or
make a name / fame.

*Nobody responds unless they are fairly confident that they know what
they are talking about. ==> No misleading replies.

*Nobody gives irritating obvious pseudo-answers such as 'I would refer
you to the vendor". (Don't people on the net have better things to do
than give airy responses to queries?)

*If you post about something technically idiotic or make a silly mistake
, somebody willl politely tell you.

*No Flash animations, cheesy graphics, ads or trying to sell me something.
*No obvious or hidden product promotion going on.

*Nobody trying to get all my personal data beore I can participate.

You are fantastic, please keep up the good work!
I am not good enough with hardware to give advice on most of the
questions here, but every time I come I look for something that my
experience means I can respond to. Usually there is nothing... Advice I
have recieved in theis group has been invaluable to me

I am female, single and technically insterested, but there is nobody in
my circle of friends that I can ask for advice on things like these. I
have found that some of the techy guys at work, despite being good
developers are misguided or ignorant about other areas of IT.

All the best
Jo

 

[Agent_C]

Why I find that this group is a much better source of information than
equivalent websites:

I agree. In general, Usenet is the best source of technical
information on the Internet. It's also the best kept secret, as less
than 10% of Internet users even know what a newsgroup is.

*If you post about something technically idiotic or make a silly mistake
, somebody willl politely tell you.

Don't expect that everywhere. This group is fairly civil, but in
general open forums can be brutal.

A_C

 

[Conor]

*If you post about something technically idiotic or make a silly mistake
, somebody willl politely tell you.

The exception being when you come on and start your post with "I have 4
years professional experience in IT" then go and call a RJ45 socket an
Internet socket.

 

[Robert Sudbury]

I prefer the label, fat-phone-plug. 8)

 

[Johanna]

"This group is fairly civil, but in general open forums can be brutal."

-Tihi, yes, that 's right (.It reminds me of the 'rtfm'
expression. ;-)
But people here are REALLY good at their stuff. So I think it's ok for
them to get irritated at very obvious 'frogs', particularly from people
who claim they are 'experienced', then turn out not to know what they
are talking about.

I work in IT (previously techy, now management) and it is incredible how
many 'fakes', for lack of a better word, work in IT today.
What's worse, they even believe (or make out) that they are serious
techies, and expect others to take them seriously...

Personally I know enough to know how very little I actually know. But
despite that I am able to help friends and relatives sort out virtually
any IT problem that they experience. So it is all relative....

I learnt programming and some basic hardware skills from REAL techies
back in the late 90s, so I can tell the difference, even if I never
really made it to their standards... I respect knowledgeable people
enormously, since I know how much hard work, experimentation and
dedication it takes to get really good.

I learnt about newsgroups when I got online in the mid 90s, while at
university. Back then, it was a big part of the online experience. The
big majority were not interested in the internet back then.
Like you said, practically nobody in my circle of friends would even
know what a newsgroup is.

Because of my blonde, feminne looks NOBODY believes I am a decent
programmer and built my own PC from scratch.
If I want a guy to back off, all I have to do is get really technical on
him, talking techy over his head, and then talk about his PC issues in a
patronizing way... ;-) That is a sure-proof way to make any non-geeky
guy loose his interest!

Well right now I am trying to figure out a way of getting out of the
corporate / bluechip IT world (which I am beginning to really loathe)
and make a living on something online. That would be so great!

All the best
Jo

 

[Debbie Nelson]

Hear! Hear!
I wholeheartedly agree!