RE: Recurrent topics on the list

[Dan Emory <danemory@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My original response about all the recurrent posts asking for help on a
relatively small number of topics was made in response to the following from
Bill Swallow:

>And ya know what, most people are thankful for that policing, as most
>people have a decent amount of work to get done and can't afford the time to
>sift through volumes of garbage to get to a small nugget of information that
>may or may not help them.

And I replied:
But that's exactly the situation now with the BradList. The vast majority of
the posts are garbage--recurring posts about a relatively small group of
problems ad nauseum: How to generate a TOC or index, conditional text
issues, autonumbering problems, problems with producing PDF, issues about
which graphic formats are best, "fuzzy" graphics, etc. And the people who
raise these recurrent topics are failing to find the "nuggets" that would
answer their questions before they post them to the list because it's too
difficult for them to weed through all the chaff.
====================================================================
I wasn't, as some have suggested, putting down the newbies who ask these
recurrent questions. But Swallow's argument was that policing is necessary
to reduce list traffic so that there is a higher percentage of "nuggets".
However, the number of "off-topic" posts (e.g., suggesting improvements in
the way the list is run) that Swallow and Brad believe should be policed is
minuscule compared to the huge volume of those recurrent topic posts and the
responses to them.

I do not believe these recurrent topic posts are made primarily by people
who have recently subscribed to the list for the first time, and therefore
have no knowledge of past posts. The majority are made by people who have
been subscribers for months if not years. People who resort to the list for
help have an obligation to adopt a discipline that will minimize the number
of recurrent topic posts. Here are some suggestions:

1. On a well-manged list, new subscribers should be required, as their first
order of business, to download a start-up package that includes a FAQ,
responsibilities of a good list citizen, and a list of places where they can
get help on matters that are considered off-topic on the framers list. The
FAQ should include most of the recurrent topics that are responsible for
much of the list traffic volume. Before becoming a full-fledged subscriber,
new subscribers are required to send an email back to the list manager which
declares that they understand and will abide by the methods and instructions
in the start-up package, and, in particular will check the FAQ before asking
for help on the list.

2. Those who ignore the start-up package and repeatedly request help on
issues that are fully addressed in the FAQ should be warned by the list manager.

3. When a new recurring topic emerges that is not covered by the FAQ, a new
item should be added to the FAQ and sent to all subscribers, instructing
them to add the new item to the FAQ they received when they first subscribed
to the list.

4. The willingness to build one's own archive is part of being a responsible
list member, because it reduces the volume of posts on subjects that have
been discussed before. Subscribers should understand that they ought to
create their own selective archive, which is far more valuable than the
entire archive of (mostly redundant) posts. They should peruse the incoming
list traffic each day, and save the "nuggets" that describe where they can
find valuable resources, or which provide solutions to problems they're
likely to run into in the future. Such an archive can be split up into many
categories (i.e., what are called mailboxes in Eudora). My archive of bug
reports and nuggets has reached a size in excess of 20 megabytes. I use it
all the time, and usually add 3 or 4 new nuggets every week. In Eudora, I
can sort an archive category by subject, date, or sender name, or I can
search through the archive using keywords. Thus, I can quickly find all the
posts over a period of several years containing the specified subject,
sender, date range, or keyword. 
     ====================
     | Nullius in Verba |
     ====================
Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
Voice/Fax: 949-722-8971 E-Mail: danemory@primenet.com
10044 Adams Ave. #208, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
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