On Sat, 11 Sep 2004, Robert Locke wrote:
On Sat, 2004-09-11 at 05:27, Robert P. J. Day wrote:undoubtedly making myself even more unpopular, let me throw out a short suggestion that will help newbies acclimate themselves here more quickly.
<snip>
Some sort of welcoming email like yours (I like the tone, but one should use some capitalization... <big grin>) coupled with a few hyperlinks to say the FAQ, both search engines, Lisa's new "README" page, and perhaps even esr's "more detailed netiquette" is a good idea.... The key of course is to make it short enough to get people started without any long diatribes that no-one will read.
exactly. i wasn't trying to lay out an entire newbie guide -- just what one would consider the absolutely basic, fundamental and non-negotiable starting point for further participation.
after all, a large number of the complaints on this list (and most lists) are:
1) poor subject lines 2) top posting 3) HTML 4) not cutting out enough of the quoted reply
start here, and work your way up.
rday
