Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Subject: Re: Yet another header idea.
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 91 05:35:19 GMT
Message-ID: <1991Apr18.053519.1381@looking.on.ca>
References: <16939@celit.fps.com>

Yes, but it requires a change to the software.

All newsgroups should support special "out of band" articles which are not
part of the numbering system.   They could either be numbered with special
numbers (p1, p2, p3, etc.) or more preferably given names.

The newsreaders should be trained to be able to offer people these articles,
including the following standards:

a) Intro to the newsgroup
b) Charter of the newsgroup and policies
c) Frequently asked questions  (several files of this)
d) Sources of information (archives, ftp sites)


The newsreader should be trained to be able to present a menu of these
items.   When a group is subscribed to for the first time, the menu is
shown.  Or the user can request the menu at any time.

Such articles would be updated in place with special articles with special
headers indicating which file to replace.   Instead of an article number, the
news software would take a filename and write to it instead.   (to avoid
conflict with subgroup names, filenames would be of the form P_keyword or
something like that.)

One special file would be the menu file used by the newsreaders.  It would
be updated as well.  Updating articles would have to be approved.
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473