[X-Newbies] Newbie Lessons

[Steven Rogers]

On May 21, 2005, at 8:41 PM, Sue Rodriguez wrote:

> This probably will not be posted because I have just unsubscribed  
> to this list.  Those who continue their “discussion” of top PosTing  
> have converted a list that was intended to give people new to OS X  
> information on problems.  I don’t believe that it was intended to  
> be be a chat list for four or five people.  I regret leaving  
> because I have gained valuable information in the past that I will  
> now have to seek elsewhere.  Please enjoy your chats.

The "newbie" lesson to learn from the top-posting discussion is that  
the "right" way to do something may not be as obvious as it seems  
when sitting at your PC running Outlook. The newbie doesn't know  
about the readability of the archives, or what the digest might look  
like. The key for them is "the line I want to see is right there".  
Its a completely understandable reaction based on their experience.  
The lesson is not that "newbies are dumb", but rather if you're a  
newbie, open your mind up to many *very* different contexts of the  
people you're dealing with before coming to a firm conclusion about  
the way things should be.

General idea of trying grasp the larger context applies to many  
situations - such as when the topic of a list wanders into something  
you're not interested in. The newbie will tend to think that the list  
has become pointless after a day, or perhaps even a few hours of  
uninteresting posts. Even the experienced may become bored or  
frustrated - the trick lies in what to do about it.  If you're prone  
to running out of dinner parties when the conversation gets dull,  
then dropping the list is for you. If you like to shout back at the  
guests "you people are so BORING", you might want to drop a similar  
email bomb on your way out. If, however, you have the patience to sit  
quietly and nod, and once others have discussed *their* interest,  
raise a topic of interest to you - then perhaps you might consider  
doing the same thing on a list.

The newbie will often imagine that they are the first to invent a  
particular clever psychological tactic, like the  "martyred list  
drop" message, which will whip the list back into shape - forgetting  
that some people have been on mailing lists 10-15 years and have seen  
it all before. Sue's post can teach a valuable newbie lesson in how  
to conduct yourself on the list. When you're thinking about posting a  
petulant or guilt-inducing message to scold others into doing what  
you want, you might consider that the more experienced may have seen  
it before, and may not find it clever. When the martyr wails, "you  
*made me* leave the list I have loved so much", the more experienced  
might be thinking, "If you love it so much, then why didn't you just  
hit the delete key?"

SR