From: mike@gcnext.gac.peachnet.edu (Michael A. Murphy) Subject: Re: Alternatives to splitting the newsgroup Date: 20 Jul 1992 21:38:28 GMT
In article <1992Jul20.192927.4438@athena.mit.edu> tytso@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Theodore Ts'o) writes:
>
>The second suggestion I have is based on something which the TeX mailing
>list uses to control novice questions. That is to recruit a bunch of
>volunteers that are willing to answer novice questions via email.
>Novices would be directed to ask their questions to a magic mailing
>address. This magic mailing address would direct their question to ONLY
>ONE of the volunteers, and going down the list to the next volunteer for
>the next questions, and so on. If you have sufficient volunteers, each
>volunteer would only get to answer one question every couple of days or
>weeks, so it shouldn't be an onerous burden. If the volunteer who gets
>the question can't answer it, he or she can escalate the question to the
>entire list of volunteers, and if none of the volunteers can field it,
>the question can then go to the newsgroup.
>
>
> - Ted
>
I think this is an excellent idea! (BTW, i've already sent my e-mail
address in as a volunteer -- I can't help with much other than installation
of the various packages -- but i'm learning all the time, and may be able
to help with other stuff in the future).
I would like to mention another source of help that is available to
users with access to irc. There is a permanent channel (#linux) on
irc that OFTEN has many very knowledgeable linux users involved in
various discussions, and who are willing to help any way they can. There
is now a 'bot (#LinuxBot) to provide topical searches of the FAQS.
This could possibly be mentioned in one of the FAQs.
mike
--
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Michael A. Murphy mike@gcnext.gac.peachnet.edu