Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 20:54:17 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@freefall.cdrom.com> To: Gary Roberts <gary@wcs.uq.oz.au> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Gating hackers into the newsgroups Message-ID: <11034.798782057@freefall.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 25 Apr 95 13:02:56 %2B1000." <9504250302.AA15637@wcs.uq.edu.au>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> 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 <n> 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
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?11034.798782057>