It would appear that on Apr 29, Tom 'Needs A Hat' Mitchell did say:
> Let me elaborate...
>
> 1) Add a mailing list tag to the subject [FC],
<snip>
> This little change will help new arrivals and if short will pose no
> pain on others.
I don't agree, It MIGHT help new arrivals who subscribed to so many new
lists that they can't keep track of which is which. But sometimes making
a subject meaningful requires as many characters as will reasonably be
displayed. Losing even the 1st 4 could be painful.
> 2) Shorten the quoted name of the list in the reply to and from
> as much as possible. "Fedora discussion <fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx>"
<snip>
> Reply-To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Is just too long and today adding the list to an address book is now
> partly crippled. No wonder folks hijack threads.
Hunh? I suppose it could look messy in your addressbook if your software
inserts it for you. But you should be able to edit it without a problem.
That said. It wouldn't hurt it to be a bit shorter. But to keep it
meaningful according to the current purpose of THIS list perhaps:
-> Reply-To: Fedora Core releases <fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 3) Begin a welcome to the list message it with a reference URL that
> people can bookmark. Cover threads, top posting, netiquette, FAQ,
> archive searching. A single URL is easy to save. A URL can stay
> current. An introductory file while a necessary first step is often
> not saved. It would be useful to send this message then 12 hours
> later activate the list so the "welcome" is not lost in the flood.
Yes and NO... adding an extra 12 hour delay would frustrate new users
who signed up because they needed help... If there is real concern about
it getting lost in the "flood" make it part of a confirmation e-mail
along with a click or reply to activate the list... If the flood doesn't
happen till they respond to it, it can't get lost in the flood.
> 4) Make sure the mailing list footer/signature is visible on lots of
> mailers. Perhaps this is a top post bottom post culture thing but the
> number of unsubscribe messages and questions tell me that it is not
> being seen.
YES!
With pine I get a line of text at the bottom that says:
[ Note: This message contains email list management information ]
This includes a link that pine hi-lights for me. if and only if I select
it I see a list of management links. The reply link works. The archive
link doesn't. (the others I didn't test)
* A method to view archive of messages sent to the list.
Select HERE to view the archive.
But when I select "HERE"
pine wants to send my browser to:
file:///archives/fedora-list
<sigh>
> 5) The single most common new user problem is how to stay current and
> setup yum/up2date to use a mirror. Please design a way to fix the
> default yum and up2date actions to help people configure their config
> files better! Too many of us have embellished config files but how
> do we get the basic vanilla mirror stuff in place.
This would be a great thing for fedora to do... But I don't see it as
part of taming the list?
> 6) Adopt TEN FAQ sites. Frequently asked questions frequently trigger
> rants, RTFM, and other non productive threads that are less than
> helpful to most beginners.
>
> Community sponsored FAQ's are one way that the user community
> to assist and help. I picked ten but a good short list one
> that has a long list is necessary.
<snip>
I don't know how many of them we need but as long as the list management
stuff included a link to a list of FAQ links... then it shouldn't be a problem
if there were several FAQs.
> 7) Consider renaming the list "FCB Fedora Core Beginner". This can
> set expectations for readers and posters. There may be some demand
> for a "FCW Fedora Core Wizard" list as a result but the wizard know
> who is who and help each other.
Please don't do that. Maybe "FCU Fedora Core Users" But the welcome
message and FAQs are a better place to "set" expectations.
> 8)
<snip>
No comment.
> 9) It is time to change the Fedora.Redhat.com web pages. Sadly I use
> Google to find stuff because the structure is dated. Today they are
> more of an engineers project page than end user pages.
<snip>
> At this point in time the web design needs to shift from engineer to user.
I'd agree that the pages need to be for the users. But I suppose those
engineers are users too.
> 10) Ponder a way to integrate man, info and other help systems.
> I have a gazibyte of documents on my box but I have no navigation
> tools that seem to do what I expect. I end up starting with
> "locate" then "less" then a browser.
Again, I don't see this as taming the list... But integrate away. But
please do so in such a way as to allow people who are already used to the
existing "help" systems to start with the familiar tool...
> Documentation is an anthology and some sane way is needed to build a
> new index and toc as each package is added. See: /usr/share/doc/ and
> the 732+ piles of good but mostly hidden stuff there.
Again, I don't see this as taming the list... But YES... An index to
installed packages wouldn't hurt. What I'd like to see is a list of
pathnames for each packages doc files, AND it's config files.
--
| --- ___
| <0> <-> Joe (theWordy) Philbrook
| ^ J(tWdy)P
| ~\___/~ <<jtwdyp@xxxxxxxx>>
But if I actually knew everything, then I'd know I was an idiot...
