Change "Respond or pass?" prompt for new users?

Jun 12 15:13 UTC 1996

There's a discussion in agora item 39 about how new users don't know that they
have any other options at the "Respond or pass?" prompt, and sometimes they
definitely need to know about the "quit" option.  Would it be OK to change
the newuser program so that it sets the "Respond or pass?" prompt for newusers
to say "Respond, pass, or quit?"?

I think it would help a lot of confused people, who otherwise are stuck in
an endless stream of items that they can't get out of.

response 2 of 45:

Jun 12 15:44 UTC 1996

Come to think of it, I think I'd like to say "stop" and not "quit".
Better connotations.

Ja, I first discovered conferencing with a "respond, forget, or pass?" prompt,
from the confer conferences at U of M.  Marcus had specific design reasons
for not encouraging people to use "forget", but I've forgotten what they were.
I do think it makes sense to add "forget" to the prompt for new users.

Interesting trivia item: the name of that prompt is "rfpprompt", where the
first 3 letters stand for "respond, forget, or pass".  So, once upon a time,
maybe even Picospan had "forget" in the prompt.

Do we want to change the prompt for everybody who hasn't defined their own
prompt, or just for new users?  I'm kinda inclined to do this just for new
users, but could see reasons to go either way.

response 4 of 45:

Jun 12 16:39 UTC 1996

i don't liek the idea of including   forget   in the prompt. there are
about 22 different options available so maybe   ?  (for help) could
be included at most.
  
the reason i son't like   forget  advertised so boldly is that grex IS a
conferencing system and forget tends to suggest 'not to participate' which
seems cntrary to the concept.
  
ok
  
ohhhh, real line noise! that's it for now
.. oh, darn, it was just my machine:   3efH`:sS8NtMvs|  (repeated on purpose)

response 6 of 45:

Jun 13 02:33 UTC 1996

PLEASE include forget! I didn't find out about it til months
after I looged on and almost gave up on conferencing for lack of knowledge!
It IS important that people know they don;t have to scroll through
things that don;t interest them. it;s free choice. and besides,
if they hear it's important, they can always remember it (something else
that should be displayed more prominently> It;s not been all that long
since I finally figured out how to use this thing even moderately...
(and *heh* i'm fw of a conference)

response 8 of 45:

Jun 13 14:44 UTC 1996

I kinda think "forget" is a necessary newbie option on a system the size of
Grex.  It's one way to make Agora manageable-sized.

Re 7: Kind of like the "breakfast food of champions" prompt that was supposed
to change every few weeks?  :)

response 10 of 45:

Jun 13 17:14 UTC 1996

It should appear everywhere or nowhere. And I know of at least one
other conference that grows items at an equal or greater rate as
Agora.

response 12 of 45:

Jun 13 17:33 UTC 1996

I like "Respond, pass, stop, or forget?"  It's all to easy for us
old-timers to forget those feelings of being on an endless conferencing
treadmill.  Let's remind people of how to get *off* the treadmill!

response 14 of 45:

Jun 13 23:14 UTC 1996

We're not all rancid and clotted *yet*, janc!    8-)

response 16 of 45:

Jun 14 05:14 UTC 1996

Huh?

response 18 of 45:

Jun 14 13:24 UTC 1996

I'd add "?" to that short list, if I were you.

response 20 of 45:

Jun 15 21:22 UTC 1996

does s qork for stop? I always learned q for quit to stop a read through.

response 22 of 45:

Jun 16 02:21 UTC 1996

it does right now , try it ....<g>

response 24 of 45:

Jun 16 14:31 UTC 1996

#22:    You and I know that, but the issue here is the inexperienced new user.