mangoe@mimsy.UUCP (11/22/86)
Henry Spencer writes: [first he quotes someone else though] >[regarding putting mod.announce.newusers first in order] >> And I say that this will benefit at least *some* of the new users of >> the net. This will at least help *those* individuals onto the path >> of net.correctness... >True. But it won't get all the new users "automatically", as you suggested >in your original posting. >On the contrary. Most new net users are unaware of the ability to >unsubscribe, and think that what they get is what's listed in the "options >-n" line in their .newsrc. This plus the massive volume of network traffic >strongly encourages them *not* to just put "all" in that line, which means >they get only the groups they explicitly select. Uh, rn doesn't start up that way. If you just type in "rn", you are initially subscribed to *everything*. If you don't want to read everything, you *have* to learn how to unsubscribe. Therefore, putting newusers first is a big win for rn, since they will see it first (and hopefully figure out that it might be useful). C. Wingate
dsp@ptsfa.UUCP (11/22/86)
In article <4388@mimsy.UUCP> mangoe@mimsy.UUCP (Charley Wingate) writes: > >Uh, rn doesn't start up that way. If you just type in "rn", you are >initially subscribed to *everything*. If you don't want to read everything, >you *have* to learn how to unsubscribe. Therefore, putting newusers first >is a big win for rn, since they will see it first Uh, that's funny. I know a lot of people who feel that they don't HAVE to do anything they don't want to. I've seen some horrendous .newsrc files as a result. :-) New rn users are initially subscribed to whatever you put in the "newsetup" program + any "new" newsgroups at the time. I've chosen to limit new users to company and regional newsgroups. However, I modified RNLIB/newsnews to suggest how to look for "other" newsgroups. It's also worth pointing out that Larry's default newsnews tells people to look at m.a.n. If you touch or modify that file from time to time, all rn users will see it without resorting to news articles to disseminate the information I alos post information on the "a" "l" and "o" options, which I find useful. -- David St. Pierre 415/823-6800 {ihnp4,lll-crg,qantel,pyramid}!ptsfa!dsp From here on up, it's down hill all the way.
falk@sun.UUCP (11/22/86)
> Henry Spencer writes: [first he quotes someone else though] > >[regarding putting mod.announce.newusers first in order] > >> And I say that this will benefit at least *some* of the new users of > >> the net. This will at least help *those* individuals onto the path > >> of net.correctness... > > >True. But it won't get all the new users "automatically", as you suggested > >in your original posting. > > >On the contrary. Most new net users are unaware of the ability to > >unsubscribe, and think that what they get is what's listed in the "options > >-n" line in their .newsrc. This plus the massive volume of network traffic > >strongly encourages them *not* to just put "all" in that line, which means > >they get only the groups they explicitly select. > > Uh, rn doesn't start up that way. If you just type in "rn", you are > initially subscribed to *everything*. If you don't want to read everything, > you *have* to learn how to unsubscribe. Therefore, putting newusers first > is a big win for rn, since they will see it first (and hopefully figure out > that it might be useful). > While we're on the subject, how about setting the expiration times on the net.newusers articles to a month instead of the default (two weeks?). That way, the articles would always be resident on the disk, and new users who start reading late in the month won't be in the dark while they wait for the articles to be posted again. -- -ed falk, sun microsystems terrorist, cryptography, DES, drugs, cipher, secret, decode, NSA, CIA, NRO. (The above is food for the NSA line eater.)
rdh@sun.UUCP (11/23/86)
Well, if they don't know about unsubscribing, perhaps there should be a word or two about it in that first article on the net and nettiquette. -bob.
korn@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Peter "Arrgh" Korn) (11/24/86)
In article <9567@sun.uucp> rdh@sun.UUCP (Robert Hartman) writes: >Well, if they don't know about unsubscribing, perhaps there should be >a word or two about it in that first article on the net and nettiquette. A little while ago a gentleman by the name of Chirs Anderson thought that the nettiquette article(s) needed to be changed, and suggested: a) that each group have it's own "nettiquette" article that new subscribers to that group should read (for instance, any of the *.sources.* groups might have a line about NOT posting *anything* other than source, or perhaps binaries, in that group--requests for soruces should be posted to *.sources.request, or whatever the appropiate group for that computer was); and b) that .announce.newusers should have it's nettiquette article re-written. Out of these suggestions came a rough draft of (b). It was posted a few months ago, but didn't get much attention. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to re-post it. Chris is off the net until summer comes around, but I have a copy of the latest drafts and have been semi-intrusted with spreading their gospel in his absense. Peter ----- Peter "Arrgh" Korn I know lots of honorary jews! Why, korn@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU some of my very best friends {decvax,dual,hplabs,sdcsvax,ulysses}!ucbvax!korn are honorary jews!