Article 8 of 66

The Newsgroups are notorious for their intolerance of indiscriminate cross-posting, of the pompous, of newbies, of... well, almost every sign of weakness. You'll even get flamed if your message line lengths don't fit. The pack attacks and savages the newcomer. But Tom has a way of handling this and offers advice on his pages that we can all learn by.
'The way I reply is to politely apologise for my ignorance, pointing out my many years of IT experience may not be relevant in this case. I request the forgiveness and assistance of the "experts".'

The document has other gems of Worthington Wisdom such as "Messages should be checked for spelling, punctuation and the like (very easy with a computer)." followed on the next line by a spelling mistake.

It was Tom's post to the aus.org.efa that drew the reply below, nominating Tom for the 1996 Gareth Powell Award for cluelessness.

We're grateful for this example from that archive of all things news, Deja News. It was in reply to Tom's posting about his, then forthcoming, speech at the Canberra Press Club. It was posted to what I presume are Tom's regular haunts on Usenet : aus.org.acs, canb.general, aus.org.efa, aus.org.auug, aus.computers, aus.comms, soc.culture.australian, aus.education, aus.politic. He's also been sighted professionally on sci.aeronautics, and on sci.military.moderated.

Subject: Internet Futures, Canberra, ABC TV 1pm Wed, 11 December From: murk@sawasdi.apana.org.au (Terry Smith) Date: 1996/12/09 Message-Id: <4a9_9612100837@sawasdi.apana.org.au> References: <32AA50ED.781E@acslink.net.au> Organization: Sawasdi BBS Hampstead Garden SA Australia +61-8-8261-7802 Newsgroups: aus.org.efa X-Ftn-To: Tom Worthington > From: Tom Worthington <tomw@acslink.net.au> TW> Australia's 'Net Futures TW> By Tom Worthington, President of the Australian Computer TW> Society TW> Presentation for the National Press Club TW> 12:30pm, Wednesday 11 December 1996 & ABC TV 1pm AEST TW> In an address to the National Press Club, Canberra, to be broadcast TW> on ABC TV, Tom TW> Worthington will argue that Australia's future direction on the use TW> of the Internet and TW> on-line technology is drifting due to a lack of direction by our TW> politicians, bureaucrats and company executives. When Mr Worthington absolutely stuffs up his formating by using a Windows app, refers to himself by name in each of the short paragraphs, and considers that EFA is a suitable vehicle for blatant self-promotion, Mr Worthington may find that the denizens of the network he wishes to create a `vision' for [usually code for "how can we make a dollar out of this"] will consider him a suitable candidate for the 1996 Gareth Powell Award for cluelessness.. Terry --- | Fidonet: Terry Smith 3:800/846.23 | Internet: murk@sawasdi.apana.org.au