Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!ames!purdue!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!jgreely From: jgreely@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions Subject: Re: Do *YOU* want to be able to ask questions here? Some say NO. Message-ID: <56691@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 3 Aug 89 03:03:28 GMT References: <4546@eos.UUCP> Reply-To: J Greely Distribution: usa Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 61 In article <4546@eos.UUCP> chguest@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Ugh) writes: [a great deal, most of which I find amusing. The main thrust is that Ugh is offended by the fact that some people find this group pointless] >This may also be happening in other local control newsgroups. Counter-revolutionaries are everywhere! Load your children and hide your guns! >If you want to continue receiving this newsgroup then it might be in >your intrest to take action and speak to your newsadmin or sysadmin. The freedom to do something stupid is very American (no, not *your* article, Ugh, the ones under discussion). I presume this is why you gave this "Save the Whims" discussion a "usa" distribution. The complaints that you take exception to seem to me completely reasonable: the existence of n.n.q, transported worldwide, encourages the lazy solution to problems, namely, posting questions that can be answered more quickly by asking locally or reading a manual. In particular, quite a few of the questions posed so far show that the authors have never heard of news.announce.newusers. Judging from the traffic, the detractors are right. Quick examples: What is uunet? What is usenet (and is it a subset of vnews)? How do I cancel an article? Where are RFC's kept? How do I talk to someone across the net? What does :-) mean? What does IMHO mean? Why do people use disclaimers? What do the lines in .newsrc mean? How do I do in rn? How do I get my signature included automatically? Most of these questions are either posted in n.a.n, documented elsewhere, or quickly answerable by a local administrator. Judging from some of the replies these questions have gotten, they are *not* answerable by the average netter. The suggested tactic of simply not distributing n.n.q beyond organization boundaries is an excellent idea, and would help slow down the inevitable crunch of net.freshman questions that will hit *big* in the fall. Do *you* want people knowing that users at your site have no way to get simple questions answered locally? >>From: csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) >>The recently voted-on/created news.newusers.questions is, IMHO, the most >>perfect example of a topic that does *not* belong in a newsgroup that I have >>ever seen. Bread and circuses, Carl... "If 100 people agree on the name, it is presumptively pretty good." "Right. And 5 million Elvis fans can't be wrong." -- Benson Margulies and David Bedno -- J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)