Rear mech pulling the wrong way?

Right ok then guys clearly I am a noob when it comes to modern (ish) bikes. Having just unboxed my 2004 FSR I already have lots of questions, but for now let's do them one at a time.

Why does the rear mech work in the opposite direction to those of the past? Having recently participated in a debate about Gripshift vs other shirting equipment this seems to me to be a much bigger change, how the hell am I going to get used to using my finger to pull back on the lever to go up a gear????

Help me out here

Is it one of those rapid rise jobbies? either that or your cables is on upside down

Rapid Rise jobbies, what's that? Cable on upside down, you're kidding right? You can put the cable on wrong and it switches round the shifting???

All I know right now is that it is a nice polished XTR rear mech, (M960 I think) if that helps. Can do a photo later.

Shimano did another silly gimmick in around 2001, with rapid rise. The mech's spring takes it to bottom gear and you pull the cable to take it to smaller sprockets. This causes all kinds of wonderful things to happen...according to the marketing department.

In reality, what it means is that downshifts require the force of the mech spring to push the chain onto the bigger sprocket, instead of your thumb force down the cable. That means very light shifting, but when the spring slackens with age it becomes erratic, especially under load. I never found my thumb was so weak that I couldn't shift down, so it was a solution to a non-existent problem. Typical Shimano marketing.

Most people hated it, which is why Shimano went back to the conventional 'high normal' system.

You will find the cable clamp is on the inner parallelogram arm instead of the outer.

It's a cruddy setup, so swap to a conventional mech and live happily ever after.
The one thing in its favor is that you have identical up/ down buttons for shifting on the bars, and for bar-end levers on drop bars it keeps the lever out of the way of your knees when you are most likely to be out of the saddle.

Yes was kidding about the cable

cant understand the need for a rapid rise myself, and didn't think about the slackened cable issues.
i'm definitely staying clear of these. never found an unforgivable issue with conventional rear mechs i'm already 'happily ever after' with all of mine

Must admit I really liked my old rr xtr set up, just seemed to work better. Still get confused now I've got a normal set up again.

XTR RR rear mech for sale £20 posted to you sir!

So let me get this straight, what you're saying is that it is meant to shift the wrong way round? Shit, I 'd better check that the brake levers are on the right way round and that I don't have to pedal backwards before I take it out for a ride... WTF??