Welcome to Usenet!

My suggestion to you is to ignore the posts and posters you do not enjoy
reading. Anyone can post to these groups, which are unmoderated, so many
different types do. It's all part of the fun. :) You can also go to Google
and search for "killfile" and learn how to use one if you cannot ignore the
posts you do not like. Understand that people are here for many different
reasons, some conflicting.

Some are here just to exhange information about cats, dogs, etc. Some are
here to form emotional ties and make friends. Some are here to get a rise
out of others here. Some are here to stop the ones they think should not be
here from posting. Some are here for other reasons. Good luck figuring out
who is who and try not to take anything personally. Cheers!

                                            Katy

Some of us are still here! Have no idea what top posting is, most of the cat
lovers don't seem to mind the occasional dog question, as some have both.
Just use your common sense and ignore any nasty stuff.
Have fun,

I don't mind an occasional dog post but surely their are dog news groups
that could be most informative?

--
Barb
Of course I don't look busy,
I did it right the first time.

This is top posting -- putting your reply at the top. It ticks some
people off, but I was never good at herd mentality.

It does get confusing if there is a lot of back and forth conversation
and some people reply at top and some at bottom, I tend to bottom-post
on those.

In general, I'd rather read the reply immediately at the top than scroll
down and play find-the-reply.

Just personal preference.

Rhonda

Welcome to Usenet. I would suggest you read for a few days before
posting (this is called "lurking").

It is a good idea not to stray too far off topic, eg, posting about
dogs in a cat group.

A group is called moderated if all posts have to be approved by certain
moderator(s). This reducies noise, abusive language etc., but for some
also cuts down spontaneity. There is no general rule. I participate in
the groups I like, moderated or not.

Groups, especially unmoderated ones, do go through changes. After all,
it takes only two persons to argue forever, and only one to keep
posting noise 24 hours a day. It is always best to ignore them, always
a mistake to try to set them straight. They do get bored and move on.

A kill-file allows you to block all posts by some criteria: author's
name, keywords in the subject line, etc. How to create one depends on
your newsreader. I use it, but rarely, finding it much easier to just
read the posts I like and delete the rest. Any further involvement is
seldom worth it. If you pick up a newspaper, do you fume over and argue
with the advertizers or reporters that don't interest you?

This is top posting. My answer appears above your question. Some people
find it unnatural to see the answer first and the question later. But
as far as I am concerned, do what you like and ignore compaliners.

This is bottom posting. My answer appears below your question. Some
people find it natural to see the question first and the answer later.
But as far as I am concerned, do what you like and ignore complainers.
That was ignore, not argue with!

I'm not an original poster, but was on frequently when rec.pets split
into rec.pets.cats and
rec.pets.dogs quite awhile ago (in the mid to late 80s I think)

Back in the arpanet days, and really up into the early 90's, there was
a lot more consideration
of so-called "netiquette". Connections were slow and most people were
posting on educational
or research organization accounts, so there was less tolerance for
things that wasted people's
time and bandwidth. It was not uncommon for people to lose their
internet accounts for
malicious posting or willful and frequent off-topic posting. It was
considered extremely rude to
post a message in which the quoted material was longer than the reply.  
People who didn't know how to use their newsreaders editors were
considered not ready to post live, and there were newsgroups that
existed solely to give people a place to test things out. Ah, the good
old days :-)