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Re: FYI: HTML targets in "Smart Questions"


On Sun, Jul 21, 2002 at 09:05:29PM -0400, Dockeen wrote:
> Instead of a second list, perhaps a second tier of community members
> might take it on themselves to pseudo-officially handle the newbie
> questions.

I don't advocate a second-tier of newbie supporters.  My proposal
would *still* rely on the mailing list at large to answer questions.
The quality of the questions would be better, however, hopefully
leading to a more satisfying situation for both newbies and experienced
users alike.

Let me explain how my "pseudo-moderation" of first-time posters
would work in practice.  Hopefully the subsequent examples will
help clarify my proposal.

OK, here's my first example:

FIRST EXAMPLE:
-------------

1. New user encounters a problem using Cygwin, refers to Cygwin
   home-page, finds mailing list link, and subscribes to mailing
   list.

2. New user sends their question to the mailing list:

   "How come you guys don't include XEmacs?  Where do I get it?  I
   need it so I can finish my programming project by Friday.  PLEASE
   HELP ME NOW!!!"

3. The ezmlm mailing list manager gets his e-mail, and before sending
   it to the rest of the subscribers, looks his address up in a
   database of some sort.  The software will determine that this
   is the first post from this subscriber, so instead of sending
   the message on to the mailing list, it will instead send him the
   following message:

   <first-time-poster-message>
     "Hello, and thanks for using Cygwin!  We've noticed that this
     is your first post to the list, and we'd like to make you aware
     of the correct way to ask questions on this list.  We need to
     do this because our list is a very high-volume list, and in
     order to manage the volume, we ask that subscribers follow a
     few simple rules before they begin participating on the list.
     The rules are contained in Eric Raymond's 'How to Ask Questions
     the Smart Way.' [link would be here]  Please read the essay
     in its *entirety*.  Not doing so will only delay getting your
     question answered."

     "Once you've read the essay, please take this quiz [link to
     quiz would be here]; passing this 3-question quiz will demonstrate
     you've read the essay, and thus will be ready to re-post your
     question.  Don't worry, the quiz is a *very* simple multiple-choice
     quiz to test that you've read the essay.  Messages posted from
     your account will be allowed only once you've passed the quiz."
   </first-time-poster-message>

4. The new user will read the "first-time poster" message (see
   above) and realize he needs to Search the Fine Web before asking
   his particular question.  A Google search will then quickly
   reveal that he must run the XEmacs Cygwin installer to install
   his software.

5. At this point, the new user doesn't bother re-posting his, since
   his question has been answered.

So, this first example shows the following:

   * No list traffic is generated from his question.

   * He learns how to ask questions on this mailing list in the
     future.

   * The software he wants gets installed.

Here's my second example:

SECOND EXAMPLE:
--------------

a. New user encounters problem, and mails question to list:

   "Hey, I found that the MumbleFratz package is crashing.  I'm
   stuck and I need this working now so I can finish my final project
   which is due next week.  PLEASE HELP ME!!!"

b. The ezmlm mailing list manager gets his e-mail, and determines
   that this is the first post from this subscriber;  this results
   in him getting the "first-time poster" message (see above for
   contents of this message.)

c. New user reads "first-time poster" message, then reads the
   ESR essay as instructed, and passes the quiz.

d. Because he read the essay, he now realizes that he must reformulate
   his question, removing the emotional plea and including specific
   clues that might help others determine a fix for his problem:

   "I found that if I do a find using the MumbleFratz package,
   and I try to pipe the results to Bass-o-matic, I get a core
   dump (core dump is on my FTP site.)"

e. He re-posts his reformulated question; this time, ezmlm notices
   that he passed his quiz, and enables his e-mail address for
   posting.

f. The mailing list members now see his reformulated question, and
   several offer to help, eventually arriving at a fix for his
   problem.

So, this second example shows the following:

   * No list traffic is generated from his first question, which
     improves the signal to noise ratio.

   * His question gets answered, not ignored, since he now knows
     how to ask "smart questions."

   * He learns how to ask questions on this mailing list in the
     future.

I hope the examples help clarify what I was proposing.

I'm still reading up on ezmlm, so I don't have anything nailed down
yet.  However, once I do, rest assured I will get further input
from everyone before I even try to run this past Chris Faylor.
(He's got enough to do without hearing from another joker like me
;-)  BTW, I'm not the mailing list admin anyway, so I can only
propose my solution, after some research on my part.

-- 
Dario Alcocer -- Sr. Software Developer, Helix Digital Inc.
alcocer@helixdigital.com -- http://www.helixdigital.com

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