Re: what i've learned, and explanation.

[Rob Mahurin <robm@mad.scientist.com>]

On Fri, Apr 13, 2001 at 03:33:13PM -0400, D-Man wrote:
> Ditto.  The list has enough volume as it is without adding an extra
> mail every day.  Sending it to new subscribers (or on-demand) sounds
> like a good idea.  I would also recommend making it fairly easy to
> find on the signup/archive web pages.

Yes, of course.  I meant to mention a link on the web page but forgot.
I like the idea of on-demand sending, as well
("mail debian-user-request@lists.debian.org -s 'faq me' < /dev/null" ?)

>    I would recommend changing
> the opening paragraph some.  When I sign up with a list I don't always
> want to read a long message with lots of boring details sent to me
> automatically by the list manager (ie marjordomo giving you its
> manpage).  

Yeah, I wrestled with that.  I think any kind of informative document
about this list would have to mention its high volume and that there
are other ways to read it.  My exposure to capitalism made me phrase
it in a marketing-friendly way ("read by thousands").  Perhaps "If you
can't handle this many messages, you can also follow the list at
[blah]" would make that point better.

> To get people to actually read it the opening paragraph
> should have some sort of catching statement to grab the reader's
> attention in it.  Maybe something like :
>     Read this before posting -- it may solve your problems for you.
> or
>     If you don't read this before posting you are likely to get flamed
>     and very little help.

The first I like.  The second I think is tainted by the flavor of this
thread; we want new subscribers to think we're nice folks :).  

> | -- 
> | Q:	Know what the difference between your latest project
> | 	and putting wings on an elephant is?
> | A:	Who knows?  The elephant *might* fly, heh, heh...
> 
> <grin>

Random .signature generators are funny things sometimes, aren't they?
This one isn't nearly as good.

Rob

-- 
[...] or some clown changed the chips on a board and not its name.
(Don't laugh!  Look at the SMC etherpower for that.)
	-- from /usr/src/linux/MAINTAINERS