to conffile or not to conffile

["Matt Armstrong" <matt@lickey.com>]

I'm packaging my own program (http://www.lickey.com/flipit/) and have a
question about configuration files.

Section 11.7.3 of the Debian Policy Manual states that the configuration
files in /etc must be left alone by the maintainer scripts if it is
marked a conffile:

    The easy way to achieve this behavior is to make the configuration
    file a conffile. This is appropriate only if it is possible to
    distribute a default version that will work for most installations,
    although some system administrators may choose to modify it. This
    implies that the default version will be part of the package
    distribution, and must not be modified by the maintainer scripts
    during installation (or at any other time). 

So I'm left in a situation where:

    - Policy forbids me from editing the /etc/flipit.conf if I mark it a
      conffile.
    - The program won't work if /etc/flipit.conf isn't edited.
    - I really do want to make it a conffile, so the user is notified of
      future options.
    - I really do want to ask the user what serial port to use when the
      thing is installed.

How do I best resolve this paradox?

-- 
matt