From owner-freebsd-stable Thu Oct 14 10:26:13 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from out0.mx.skynet.be (out0.mx.skynet.be [195.238.2.35]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 90A26151C0 for ; Thu, 14 Oct 1999 10:26:08 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from root@foxbert.skynet.be) Received: from foxbert.skynet.be (foxbert.skynet.be [195.238.1.45]) by out0.mx.skynet.be (8.9.3/odie-relay-v1.0) with ESMTP id TAA20930; Thu, 14 Oct 1999 19:25:44 +0200 (MET DST) Received: (from root@localhost) by foxbert.skynet.be (8.9.1/jovi-pop-2.1) id TAA20861; Thu, 14 Oct 1999 19:25:43 +0200 (MET DST) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: blk@foxbert.skynet.be Message-Id: In-Reply-To: References: Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 19:23:47 +0200 To: Doug , Jamie Norwood From: Brad Knowles Subject: Re: Roasting Newbies Cc: "Daniel C. Sobral" , "Paul M. Lambert" , stable@FreeBSD.ORG Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG At 10:08 AM -0700 1999/10/14, Doug wrote: > It is cabable of that, but managing this on the scale we're > talking about with the FreeBSD lists is just not an easy task. This idea > has been proposed often, and always rejected by the very people you claim > to want to help. I can't speak for whether or not it is practical in the context of the FreeBSD lists (I'm not the postmaster, after all), but I can speak within my experience. [0] > As much as I applaud any efforts to increase the level of user > education, I have to say that I think an automated response just will not > do. IMO, if it's not an automated response, the rules won't be implemented with any regularity, and the inappropriate questioners will not learn. You've got to set things up so that it is impossible for humans to screw up this task, because they're not real good at following precise recipes for exactly how to act, and reliably applying those rules each and every time. However, computers *are* real good at precisely these sorts of things. If you don't automate it, it won't happen. [0] I've been running mailing lists for a number of years, mostly small ones with Majordomo, but also some larger ones with industrial-strength tools such as Listserv. -- These are my opinions -- not to be taken as official Skynet policy ____________________________________________________________________ |o| Brad Knowles, Belgacom Skynet NV/SA |o| |o| Systems Architect, News & FTP Admin Rue Col. Bourg, 124 |o| |o| Phone/Fax: +32-2-706.11.11/12.49 B-1140 Brussels |o| |o| http://www.skynet.be Belgium |o| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Unix is like a wigwam -- no Gates, no Windows, and an Apache inside. Unix is very user-friendly. It's just picky who its friends are. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message