bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (05/26/87)
As George "grr" Robins pointed out comp.sys.amiga has a very high volume. What follows are three tips that, if followed, will result in less volume, less garbage, higher information density and greater overall value: 1> From the top level of readnews type "g news.announce.newusers" and read it if you have not already done so. The next two tips are the points that, while covered in news.announce.newusers, have been poorly used here in comp.sys.amiga: 2> Many people ask questions on then net. Many never get answers. Many questions get multiple answers. Due to the asynchronous nature of the network certain of these duplications are unavoidable. More often, the responses are spread out over several days. The later messages often add nothing, or even say less than the preceding ones. There is a way to prevent this situation: a> When you read a message you can/wish to respond to, write some identifying information information on paper, disk or in a window. b> Keep reading to the end of the newsgroup. If someone posts a message that says all you planned to say then cross out your notes. c> Decide if your response has "world-wide" significance. If not mail it to the questioner only. Most incomplete answers fall into this category. A person who gets mail with solutions to problems is morally obligated to summarize the responses. 3> If you have a long source or binary post it to COMP.SOURCES.AMIGA or COMP.BINARIES.AMIGA. These groups have been broken in the past, but work now. There is a 2-4 day delay for the moderator to rubber-stamp the posting. If your news software is old you will need to send your posting directly to the moderator at amiga-binaries-request@j.cc.purdue -or- amiga-sources-request@j.cc.purdue -or- doc@j.cc.purdue. I apologize for not having a old style UUCP path available. Let's ensure that comp.sys.amiga remains UNRESTRICTED and UNMODBis. One