From owner-freebsd-hackers  Mon Apr 24 19:39:44 1995
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Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 19:39:41 -0700
From: Jeffrey Hsu <hsu>
Message-Id: <199504250239.TAA07177@freefall.cdrom.com>
To: gary@wcs.uq.oz.au
Subject: Re: Gating hackers into the newsgroups
Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org
Sender: hackers-owner@FreeBSD.org
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  > OK, having been stupid enough to put my hand up in the first place, here
  > is what I see myself being able to do.

  > 1.  I agree to act as a `registration point' for willing `lurkers'.  If you

  > 2.  I would produce a suitable `announcement' of the service which would

  > 3.  I would receive all requests from newbies and send them a standard

  > 4.  At the end of the hand-holding period (how long do people feel this

  > 5.  Helpers can withdraw at any time *after* handling 1 newbie.  This

  > 6.  I would try to do this `by hand' unless some scripting expert could
  >     come up with some automated scheme to handle it.

Do you have any idea how many 100s of CDROMs WC ships every week?  How
many of these newbies do you think you're going to be able to handle
manually?

Since most of these newbie problems will be the same, a newbie FAQ,
periodically broadcast to the newsgroup, would be a much more effective
solution.  You could compile the info for this FAQ from old
list mail and newsgroups questions.  Our current collection of FAQs
should also help.  People who've just helped a newbie with a new problem
could send a short writeup to you for inclusion in the newbie FAQ.

This way, you could reach thousands and thousands of newbie who see
the FAQ on the newsgroup all at once rather than individually.