jgd@uwmcsd1.UUCP (John G Dobnick) (04/02/86)
[Line eater, line eater... wherefore art thou, line eater?] This message relates to much of the recent flame-age about new users on the net and where they learn about things. (It also applies to my initial interaction with the net.) Scenario: New User arrives and posts somthing to the net. *Everyone* and his brother flame New User for "inappropriate" posting to an "inappropriate" group. New User feels hurt and strikes back. Net result: A new Flame War. It seems to me that much of this confusion/lack-of-knowledge-by-new-users/ mis-fortunate-first-steps could (and probably would) be avoided if the lowly (remember, we ALL used to be one of these once :-)) new user were first exposed to the net.announce.newusers articles before ANYTHING else. My first experience with net.flame-age occurred when I (innocently) posted a "followup" to (horrors!) net.general. We were a new site then, and were just starting to receive news. Two weeks *AFTER* this incident, we received the periodic posting of net.announce.newusers articles, including the one explaining that one does NOT followup to net.general! Note, this was two weeks AFTER the incident! I have a small suggestion that may help avoid situations like the above. (Well, actually, it's *two* suggestions.) 1) Include the net.announce.newusers articles, *all* of them, with each news distribution. This way they will be installed and available to new sites WHEN THEY INSTALL netnews. This avoids the time lag new sites encounter when they first connect to the net. 2) Re-order the groups in /usr/lib/news/active (or where-ever news derives the search order for groups from and place net.announce.newusers FIRST! This way, new users will see these articles BEFORE anything else. (Maybe this could be done as simply as by changing the order of things in the checkgroup control message?) I think implementing these two suggestions will ease new users into the "proper way of doing things" in a much "friendlier" manner. [Note: I am restricting this posting to "na" only. From what I have seen on the net, new.user.flame-age is restricted (mostly) to the USA. Also, I think most (if not all) of the net.wizards who can do anything about this problem are in the US.] Thank you for your support... -- -- John G Dobnick Computing Services Division @ University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee UUCP: ...ihnp4!uwmcsd1!jgd INTERNET: uwmacc!uwmcsd1!jgd@rsch.wisc.edu
ado@elsie.UUCP (Arthur David Olson) (04/03/86)
+ My first experience with net.flame-age occurred when I (innocently) posted + a "followup" to (horrors!) net.general. We were a new site then. . . + Two weeks *AFTER* this incident, we received the periodic posting of + net.announce.newusers articles, including the one explaining that one does + NOT followup to net.general. . . + + I have a small suggestion. . .(Well, actually, it's *two* suggestions.) + 1) Include the net.announce.newusers articles, *all* of them, with + each news distribution. . . + 2) Re-order the groups in /usr/lib/news/active. . .and place + net.announce.newusers FIRST!. . . Me, I'd be a bit more draconian: I'd set things up so that the date on which someone first read news was recorded, then checked when someone sought to post an item to a "net" group. Attempted postings within (insert your choice of time interval here) would be rejected. -- ADM is a Lear-Siegler trademark. -- UUCP: ..decvax!seismo!elsie!ado ARPA: elsie!ado@seismo.ARPA DEC, VAX, Elsie & Ado are Digital, Borden & Shakespeare trademarks.