mike scott wrote: > ... > To be blunt, the 'users' mail list suffers from beginners. Not just > beginners, but beginners who don't seem able (or willing even) to put > in a little effort to help themselves. ...
There are more beginners than ever and almost none (in absolute numbers) make the transition to novice or intermediate. That part of the "system" is broken. > ** The question's been asked many, many times before; the answer could > be found online with a little effort. Google and the other search engines return crap these days. For me, I started having a hard time finding anything useful around 2003, then it's gradually deteriorated. Perhaps *streamlining* the web site could steer people to the FAQs and documentation first. See end of message below. > ** Poster can't be bothered to put in a subject for the email. Fewer and fewer people actually know how to use e-mail. The "September that Never Ended" has started to afflict e-mail. > ** Poster isn't subscribed in the first place (and won't necessarily > see a reply anyway) The list ought to be set so that replies, by default, CC the sender. Moving to a normal list server should facilitate that. > ** Poster doesn't understand at all how the list functions, and thinks > they're talking to a paid support facility. See the "Sept.." above. In 1995 or 1996, one web site I worked with had such a problem from AOL users that a notice in huge letters "This is *not* AOL. You have reached the Internet..." or something to that effect and a list of do's and don't we had that for several weeks or months. We could consider a similar notice for the list. > Well, the list could go on. Frankly, I think the regular support team > have a marvellous amount of patience (I've lost count of how many times > they've said very temperately that OOo will indeed run on vista :-) ). Cut-n-paste from a FAQ helps. > ... > To cut to the chase, my initial thought is to replace the moderators > with some sort of FAQ engine: an /unsubscribed/ user's email would be > scanned automatically for keywords and matched against a selection of > common FAQs. For unsubscribed users, yes. That might be something to consider. Procmail and other filters can be set up to automatically send a reply, say with info about the FAQs and the guides. Then to get through, the original (still unsubscribed) sender must reply to the reply. Perhaps a general campaign for Netiquette in the NYT, Chicago Tribune, LA Times and Washington Post might help. ;) -Lars --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
