A couple of clarifications:
2) You should have replied the following:
"Dear User,
None of the MVPs work for MS. We have no reason to post with "Dear user"
since we are also regular users like yourself.
Thank you for contacting the Mactopia forum.
This is not the MacTopia forum..... It looks like it is, but it isn't.
This is the newsgroup microsoft.public.mac.office.word and MacTopia
simply offers a webpage to mirror it, just like Google does actually.
Everybody here is a user. Some of us spend more time than others in the
newsgroups trying to help others (and some of the users in this group
then get awarded by MS as MVPs).
Some users post without first searching whether their question is
already answered (which is bad netiquette and requires that people waste
some of their free time re-answering the questions - it's not that
bad... a bit annoying, especially when the questions have been posted
quite often, but that's not what we are talking about here).
Some people repost the same question over and over again, and sometimes
in multiple groups despite the fact that the question has already been
answered. Now this is often considered insulting to people who
originally answered the first time (it basically means: I don't care
about what you said) and should be avoided by all means. An answer in a
thread doesn't mean that other people can't contribute too. The thread
is not blocked in any way and most of the time, if no one else posts in
the thread it's because there is nothing new to contribute.
If John posts in a thread, it doesn't mean other people won't post after
him. People can disagree with each other and that's perfectly OK. I
disagree with John all the time (I still believe that Regular Expression
support for search a replace would be a terrific addition to Word, John
:-> ) and John and I are still in good terms.
Now if people disregard the netiquette and upset other users, I don't
see why we shouldn't say it like it is. I do not appreciate when people
behave like that and I, too, will say it openly. As far as I am
concerned, the problem in this thread is between John and whoever posted
the original post.
The discussion obviously became heated, but who would-I be to judge? In
any case, I can sure understand what upset John in this thread. And
after all, haven't you ever been in an argument with someone before??
Did complete strangers then come after you to ask that your status be
revoked?? (and good luck with that by the way, since John is probably
one of the most knowledgeable people on Word around and since he won't
have any difficulty finding a LOT of people to support him against such
a frivolous request)
My overall conclusion woudl therefore be:
- don't repost the same question over and over again
- be nice to people who reply to your posts because if you're not, you
will 1) get strong reactions and 2) no one else will want to reply to
your posts in the future (there are a couple of people in my kill-file).
- this is a peer-support forum. You can't "expect" to receive support
from anyone.
- people can reply to only some of your questions and leave the others
to be answered by others: no one *has* to reply to all your questions.
(and sometimes, no one really knows what the answer is - and that's OK
too).
If you don't like John or don't care for the answers he is providing in
the group, use a decent newsgroup reader and add him to the kill-file.
You'll never see his post again and the question will be settled.
Cheers,
Corentin
