We have had a number of obviously student-type (or student-age) posters in
some of these NGs for a time. Even when they aren't rude, arrogant
know-it-alls, they often "helpfully" post dozens of inaccurate, incomplete,
or just plain wrong answers before they move on. Aside from posting the
correct answer in parallel, about all you can do is hold your breath and
bite your tongue till they move on.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Amedee Van Gasse" wrote in message
...
Suzanne S. Barnhill shared this with us in
microsoft.public.word.newusers:

especially to actual Usenet NGs (ones not on the msnews
server), where a more rough-and-ready posting style apparently
obtains.

You mean a "hit-and-run" posting style.
At home I have my default "don't feed this troll" message, with some
nice ASCII art. ;-)

Anyway your observation may be right in the case of the Microsoft
newsgroups.
Forum users over here may be ignorant and clueless (some, not all) but
don't stick around, because of the specific nature and sheer volume of
messages.

On the other hand, I have seen other forums (like the user forum of my
ISP) where the opposite is true: the newbies do stick around, and the
worst part of the year is when high school and college students have
their exams (=now). One might wonder if they shouldn't study...

--
Amedee Van Gasse