Do you really want to tell me that there are people who do not know that a string must always be pressed as close to the bar as possible without damping it? I am also astonished that there seem to be instruments that do not snare terribly when the string is pressed in the middle of the fret. The only reason for that I can imagine is that these instruments have extremely high bars (compared to what I know.

One should also avoid 'drawing' the strings (don't know if this is the right word in english) i.e. displacing the string from its correct position on the bar. Always press the string DOWN, do not push it towards one of the adjacent strings. Doing so also causes wrong pitch and can e.g. be used to produce a vibrato.

Joerg