From: AfPhantom
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett
Subject: Re: [M] Grammar, etc. (was Re: Books going stale)
Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 15:00:00 +0100
Miq wrote in message
> How vainly posters ever strive
> To keep their pedantries alive!
{snipped remainder}
Brilliant! That certainly summed up my feelings on the matter, but you've gone and set *me* off now :-)
I couldn't possibly top your offering on this particular subject, but I'd like to share with afp some more general guidelines of what I think it is to be a good Usenet poster - or more specifically, an afp'er...
*If*
If you can leave a thread when those about you
Are splitting hairs and blaming it on you;
If you can keep your peace when they still doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting, too;
If you can LART and not get tired of LARTing,
Or being spammed at, still don't deal in traps;
Or being flamed, you don't give way to flaming,
And causing funny threads to be collapsed;
If you can joke - and not make jokes your master;
If you can quip - but not make quips your aim;
If you can meet with plaudits and debunking
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to see the post you've crafted
Twisted by pedants to make live bait for trolls;
Or see the words you gave a night to broken,
Yet post again when morn's alarm bell tolls;
If you can take a look at your next posting
And see that you have writ a load of toss -
Delete, and start again from the beginning
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your tired mind and fingers
To serve their turn long after they are gone,
And so post cheerfully when there's nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them "Post on!"
If you can talk with newbies and stay friendly,
Or laugh at trolls - nor lose your hum'rous touch;
If neither flames nor mild rebukes can hurt you,
So all will heed your words - but none too much;
If you can fill each freshly-minted sentence
With many seconds' worth of written fun,
Yours is this group and ev'rything that's in it;
And - which is more - you're an af'per, my son!
Apologies to Mr. Kipling (who wrote exceedingly good poems) and thanks to Miq for a very inspiring post...
AfPhantom
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