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From: bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells)
Newsgroups: news.misc,news.groups
Subject: Re: Would news.newusers be possible? (was Re: Alternate access)
Message-ID: <925@twwells.uucp>
Date: 17 May 89 00:21:14 GMT
References: <995@cipc1.Dayton.NCR.COM> <911@twwells.uucp> <10240@socslgw.csl.sony.JUNET>
Reply-To: bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells)
Followup-To: news.groups
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In article <10240@socslgw.csl.sony.JUNET> diamond@csl.sony.junet (Norman Diamond) writes:
: In article <911@twwells.uucp> bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells) writes:
:
: >Hey, there's an idea: a news.newusers group, for helping beginning
: >users! If there was some way to let new users know that their
: >beginning questions could be answered in one place, we might be able
: >to cut down that noise in other groups. And it might cut down on the
: >burden of system administrators.  Furthermore, new users who
: >subscribed might well discover, in the answers to other people's
: >questions things they hadn't thought to ask.
:
: >Now if we could just figure a way to let new users know of the group!
:
: >Followups have been directed to news.groups.
:
: Wouldn't news.announce.newusers fit the bill?  It helps beginning
: users.

No. News.announce.newusers has several drawbacks:

	it is general, meaning that questions which are specific to a
	particular kind of system don't get answered.

	it is noninteractive, meaning that if the original explanation
	is not sufficient, the new user is stuck.

	it is static, meaning that the only questions answered are
	those someone has so far thought to answer. The world of
	questions is much wider than that.

And another point: someone monitoring the proposed group might well
discover something that should be included in n.a.n.

: Now, if we could just figure a way to let new users know of the group!

Silly person, you missed the point: n.a.n. already exists and has the
sanction of many, if not most, news administrators. Getting another
group to the same point may not be a trivial task, if for no other
reason than it may not have as wide acceptance.

: Followups have been redirected back to news.misc.

Like hell!

They've been directed back where they belong, to news.groups.

---

Mr. Diamond, that was irresponsible of you. It is one thing to
assert, as you did with your not too successful sarcasm, that you
believe the proposal lacks merit; it is quite another to waste
bandwidth in an inappropriate group.

Perhaps you would benefit from the answers to some new-user type
questions?

---
Bill                            { uunet | novavax } !twwells!bill