Hi Brandon.

Brandon J. Van Every wrote:

> I don't believe in lurking "to get the feel," and never have. It is a
>
>luxury for people with all the time in the world.  It's also a form of
>submissiveness (shut up, don't speak until you know the ropes) that I don't
>expect out of children, adults, or basically anybody.
>

I never realised there was an RFC for netiquette 
(http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html)

3.1.1 General Guidelines for mailing lists and NetNews

    - Read both mailing lists and newsgroups for one to two months before
      you post anything.  This helps you to get an understanding of
      the culture of the group.


Silly me. But then again there's an RFC for IP-over-pigeons.*

People's time and bandwidth are their resource that they choose to share 
with you, which makes it a privilege rather than a right, I would have 
thought. Rather like not barging into someone else's conversation and 
demanding attention, you might say.

Regards,
Dan

*no really! http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html