Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!bionet!ig!agate!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!hadron!inco!mack From: mack@inco.UUCP (Dave Mack) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: News.announce.newuser seems to be empty Message-ID: <2459@inco.UUCP> Date: 23 Aug 88 14:38:13 GMT References: <20421@watmath.waterloo.edu> <1070@cfa214.cfa250.harvard.edu> <13498@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <4712@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <2457@inco.UUCP> <13546@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: mack@inco.UUCP (Dave Mack) Organization: McDonnell Douglas-INCO, McLean, VA Lines: 43 In article <13546@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Obnoxious Math Grad Student) writes: >In article <2457@inco.UUCP>, mack@inco (Dave Mack) writes: >> It >>should be built into the newsreaders. When someone lights up a >>newsreader, and no .newsrc exists in their home directory, > >So far, Gnews merely puts n.a.n as their first newsgroup in this >situation. > >> the >>software should go into training mode and not leave it until >>the user has shown at least a rudimentary knowledge of the >>net. > >I think that's a bit too much. I don't know, really. I think there >should be a built-in guide to Usenet for beginners *built into the >newsreader*. My wording may have been a bit too strong there. The minimum training system would display a text file containing a brief description of Usenet and information on how to get started. A slightly modified version of Chuq von Rospach's Usenet Primer would probably suffice. >One thing I've suggested to Gene Spafford was that the Message-ID's >for n.a.n articles be standardized in an algorithmically determinable >way. For example, the List of Active Newsgroups, Aug '88, would be >in article . This would let newsreading soft- >ware get easily at these articles at user request, say via some ob- >vious menu. > >Gnews, being part of Emacs, has its manual available on-line, and I've >added Gnews commands to access various chapters of the manual directly. >It would be easy to put in even more. The problem is that many of the new users are barely computer literate. They need bootstrap information. I assume that most users will start posting long before they figure out how to use Emacs/Gnews. Gnews is a fine newsreader, but it's not for the novice. -- Dave Mack mack@inco.uu.net