From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Apr 24 20:54:21 1995 Return-Path: hackers-owner Received: (from majordom@localhost) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) id UAA11045 for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 20:54:21 -0700 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) with SMTP id UAA11035 ; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 20:54:18 -0700 X-Authentication-Warning: freefall.cdrom.com: Host localhost didn't use HELO protocol To: Gary Roberts cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Gating hackers into the newsgroups In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 25 Apr 95 13:02:56 +1000." <9504250302.AA15637@wcs.uq.edu.au> Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 20:54:17 -0700 Message-ID: <11034.798782057@freefall.cdrom.com> From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" Sender: hackers-owner@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > I'm working on an announcement at the moment. I'll send it to you for > final vetting. I'll expect someone (other than myself) to take final > responsibility for the content of that message. I'll do the final editing and take responsibility - no sweat. > So do we just remind helpees that when they feel _comfortable_ about it > they will be followed up and asked to take on another new user? Essentially, yes. You'll be basically making an appeal to everyone's good nature and _strongly suggesting_ that people who've enjoyed the benefits of the service contribute something at some point. Sort of like the blood banks do. Not that I'm sure I like that particular simile.. :-) I'd even go one step further and suggest that you can even do this via some sort of mail rendevous system that tracks when a question has gone unanswered for some time - this is generally done by imbeding a "converstation ID" in the message that's generated when the newbie is first assigned to an answerer. If you detect that no response has been generated in hours, you automatically send it on to the next person in the helpers queue. This is exactly how "The USENET Oracle" works, incidently (and I challenge anyone here to identify any of the 3 of my contributions that made it into the Oracularities.. :-) [Except you, Michael! :)] > I'll start `by hand' but if anyone volunteers to automate it, or has ideas > for automation, I certainly won't turn you away. Well, see above.. :-) > Yeah, so far I'm willing to try. I'll wait just a bit to see what other > reactions come to the surface. While I'm waiting, if anyone is willing > to `adopt a newbie', just drop me a short note. I've just cleared 100meg > on my disk to receive the flood of applications :->. And if this number doesn't grow appreciably, yell! I think that Julian is right about this requiring a substantial amount of initial noise to get started, but get started it should and will! Jordan