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