Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rphroy!caen!uwm.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!adm!news From: fsbrn@BRL.MIL ( Ferd Brundick) Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal Subject: Re: Timo Salmi's obnoxious postings Message-ID: <26559@adm.brl.mil> Date: 15 Apr 91 13:51:03 GMT Sender: news@adm.brl.mil Lines: 34 Hi, I run the info-pascal mailing list, and it is my site that provides the info-pascal <--> comp.lang.pascal gateway. Since the list isn't moderated, my primary tasks are to add and delete subscribers. Anyway, I appreciate Timo's FAQ list. Anyone who reads news on a regular basis quickly discovers that questions seem to follow a 6 month cycle. Someone will ask a question, there will be a long discussion about it, and then several months later a new subscriber who missed the first exchange will ask the same question. Not only is this boring and wasteful, but I'm sure some points are forgotten the second (and third and ...) time. I used to clean up the mail archives and keep copies on my host. (Due to lack of availability and disk space, the archives are at simtel20.) When someone without ftp access needed a file I would mail it to them. I didn't feel comfortable saying "What you need has been discussed. Go dig the file out for yourself". Once the gateway was installed the volume of mail became too large for me to keep up with it. Now we have Timo maintaining (on his own) the FAQ list, which in essence is a condensed version of common discussions. I'd rather be told how to get the FAQ than receive a brief answer that is incomplete. I suppose Timo could post the pertinent answer, but I'm sure he has better things to do than play mailman all day. I hope I've made my point. Don't look a gift FAQ in the mouth. dsw, fferd Fred S. Brundick aka Pascal Postman USABRL, APG, MD.