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| Author |
Message |
andyv
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Changes on Grex since move
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Jan 27 16:54 UTC 1995 |
Concerning the motd note, ...have moved, if you notice anything different
let us know, I didn't see anywhere to let anybody know if changes, good
or bad, have been noticed. Here is a place to say if there have been
any changes.
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| 42 responses total. |
andyv
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response 1 of 42:
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Jan 27 16:58 UTC 1995 |
This week has been terrible for me. I have tried to read through the new
entries several times at a couple different machines at different times
of the day and I get hung up before I get done. Everything just quits.
It has hapened while I have writeing some messages too. I am getting
on through mlink or the msu gopher. This is very frustrating. anyone
else having any problems like this? (I can't believe I got done with
this :-(
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andyv
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response 2 of 42:
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Jan 27 17:00 UTC 1995 |
This item has been linked from coop #92
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nestene
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response 3 of 42:
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Jan 27 17:22 UTC 1995 |
Whenever I try to call grex, the phone just goes on ringing; I never get
a busy signal, even when my housemate robh assures me all the modems are
in use.
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steve
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response 4 of 42:
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Jan 27 18:40 UTC 1995 |
Peter, last night Marcus and I got to the Dungeon at about
midnight, and fix{ed the resistor for the tty06 line such that
761-3000 rang busy for me when I saw that tty00 - 05 were in use. So
I think that that problem is solved. If people are getting open rining
still, then we have a bad modem or one that needs resetting.
Andy, will you keep track of when you got frozen in the future?
That will let us check your problems against those of fryps, and we
will see if they match, or something new is happening to you, or if
the problem is possibly related to something non-Grex on the net.
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andyv
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response 5 of 42:
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Jan 27 20:34 UTC 1995 |
Thanks Steve, I'll note when I have problems and e-mail it to you?
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andyv
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response 6 of 42:
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Jan 27 22:15 UTC 1995 |
Posting this must have frightened the gremlins. I've been on over an hour
catching up and nothing has happened ;)
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steve
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response 7 of 42:
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Jan 27 22:32 UTC 1995 |
No, post them here. That way everybody can see 'em.
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chelsea
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response 8 of 42:
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Jan 27 22:49 UTC 1995 |
Speaking of MOTDs - I'm curious as to how many people even
read Grex's MOTD anymore, what with all the trivial stuff that
shows up in it, like announcing library book sales. Stuff
that could be quite appropriately put into the announcements
item are put in the MOTD for I'm not sure what reason.
Someday you guys are going to need everyone's attention
and you're going to find few are reading the dang thing
for good reason.
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ajax
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response 9 of 42:
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Jan 27 23:02 UTC 1995 |
I still scan the motd...grex is usually slow enough logging me in
that I have nothing better on my screen to read...I also read floor
numbers on elevators, even though they're usually the same. :)
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chelsea
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response 10 of 42:
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Jan 28 00:04 UTC 1995 |
I have a number of things which show on login and scroll off the
screen while I usually futz with something, like mail or a to-do
list. Then I tail back and read what I'm interested in but seldom
does this include the MOTD.
Maybe what would be fairer, if folks agree it's not too cluttered,
would be to perm it so that anyone could leave whatever they consider
important in the MOTD. One person's Blood Bank drive is another person's
Library Sale, is another person's gig at the Blind Pig, and they
are all worthy in the eye of the Lord. ;-)
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popcorn
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response 11 of 42:
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Jan 28 00:25 UTC 1995 |
This response has been erased.
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randall
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response 12 of 42:
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Jan 28 04:18 UTC 1995 |
I didn't really realize it until now, but looking back, I have a feeling
that popcorn may be right. People are becoming more (if you;ll pardon the
phrase) tight a***d on this system then I remember. I'm not
critizing anyone who has a complaint about something that really bugs them.
Again, I'm really trying not to steop onany toes here, it
wasn't obvious until popcorn stated the example. But to be perfectly
honest , the comment about the book fair being "inappropriate" was rather
anal. Is it really such a big deal? One of the things I love most about
Grex is the freedom to speak and do pretty much as I please without the
staff or anyone else coming down on me. Ithink this is something that
should be watched very closely. Grex being a free system, for
the most part, for the majority of it's existence, we may have been
lulled into a sense of security in the respect. We might find it creeping up
on us faster than we think if we're not careful.
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steve
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response 13 of 42:
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Jan 28 04:48 UTC 1995 |
Mary's point about the MOTD bing cluttered should be thought
about. I *like* things like messages about the library sale in the MOTD,
becuase I have swiss cheese for brains at times, and I'll pay
attention to that when I've forgotten about email, etc.
But I do understand about the clutter factor in it. If onl;y
we had less things broken, such that it needed less explaining... ;-)
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rcurl
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response 14 of 42:
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Jan 28 05:23 UTC 1995 |
With a lot of users on the system, and the motd one window high, it is
inevitable that there will be conflicting desires for space and opinions
on how the space is used. The problem is to resolve this, not just argue
about it. I would suggest that some new concepts should be considered
for "the space first seen by the user logging in". This is, after all,
the "marquee" for Grex. I'm just going to toss out a bunch of alternatives,
and maybe some discussion can get started. If anyone wants to discuss it,
then we can start an item in coop on Whither the MOTD?
1. Continue the way it is, and snipe at each other.
2. Let anyone enter *one line* pointing to particular cfs for what they
want to announce.
3. Make the motd something like a menu page, where the user can choose
to read categories (and return to the motd), or skip out.
4. Appoint a motd czar to adjucate the allocation of motd space.
5. Eliminate the motd.
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randall
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response 15 of 42:
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Jan 28 05:37 UTC 1995 |
I like #3 very much. A very novel idea for the MOTD.
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chelsea
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response 16 of 42:
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Jan 28 05:38 UTC 1995 |
I didn't say the libarary message was inappropriate and I'm
certainly not picking on Valerie. I didn't even know who
had entered the message. I was suggesting that if we'd
really like to keep the MOTD area *special* then maybe it
would be a good thing to consider whether items entered there are,
indeed, special or would be a more appropriate fit in another
space, like the announcements item. But if folks don't want
to reserve it for more urgent or important notices, fine by me.
And there already are rules involving the MOTD, Valerie, meaning only
those who have been given certain posting privileges can indeed post
there. So, knowing this, I would think folks would indeed *want* to be
careful not to enter comments there that are maybe their personal favorite
announcements when not everyone would have the same privilege. But it's
really not a big deal. Nothing personal was intended. No one here has
hinted at any rules. Rather just some friendly comments, you know,
"talking it out" type discussion, to see if everyone feels okay about how
the MOTD is being used.
Maybe it would also be helpful to let folks know how they could
go about getting something posted in the MOTD? Who should they
email? What kinds of things would be okay to ask to have
included?
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chelsea
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response 17 of 42:
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Jan 28 05:41 UTC 1995 |
Well, Rane slipped in, but prior to his response no one had
hinted at any rules. ;-)
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aruba
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response 18 of 42:
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Jan 28 07:34 UTC 1995 |
Does anyone object to the walk announcements in the MOTD being, sometimes,
5-6 lines?
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cicero
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response 19 of 42:
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Jan 28 17:19 UTC 1995 |
I really feel the need to respond to this discussion:
First of all, let me say that I have never had a problem with anything that
has been posted in the MOTD for as long as I've been on Grex--that 's over
a year now I believe. Secondly I want to thank Valerie for her contributions
to the MOTD. They have been appropriate and informative IMO.
I've been seeing a fair amount of grousing over the past few months about the
MOTD. I just don't understand what the big deal is. You log in, it scrolls
past. I certainly can't read it that fast. If you want to see what it says,
you scroll back or open your lookback buffer or what ever you do with your
terminal program. What is the big deal? If you don't care what it says,
don't look back. I'm really sick and tired of all the complaining about
the MOTD wasting peoples time! That just seems absurd to me. It's not that
big of a deal. Even if it was 3 screens long it wouldn't waste time, because
it goes goes by so fast anyway. If we =really= feel that super important
stuff gets lost, maybe we should have a convention which says that the =super=
important stuff goes first, or maybe last, and the rest can be just fairly
important stuff.
Specifically about the book sale, I again want to THANK Valerie for putting
that in the MOTD, because I would not have found out about it otherwise. I
rarely read agora anymore, because it just takes too damn much time, so I
am not likely to see things posted in announcements. When I saw the book
sale notice come scrolling across my screen I thought "cool, another of those
neat library book sales!" not "damn why is grex always cluttering um my nice
pristine login screen with this stuff?" The book sale is an excellent
example of something that SHOULD be in the MOTD becaus it is a limited-time
event that will be of interest to a resonable number of people here.
I don't think you'd want to post it three months in advance, but using
the MOTD to give people a couple days notice of an important event
like the book sale seems to me to be a really good thing!
In closing, let me say that I do NOT want to see guidelines drawn up for
useage of the MOTD. The past couple of posters are right: we have enough
rules already here. We need a bit more anarchy or rather we need to
at least preserve some of it. The MOTD, as long as it does contain the
super important info, is not so critical that it needs to be micro-managed.
It also does not need to be open to everyone. Not everything needs to be
exactly equal in the world. People can currently post announcements in
the announcement item, and many people will see them. If someone has
something that they think would make a good MOTD then they can send it
to Valerie or other staff, who, in many cases I'd think, would post it.
No big deal. I know, I know: "what if the thousands of grex users out there
decide to all send in submissions?" Hey, let's address that problem if it ever
occurs. It's not like it's going to crash the system!
Sorry about the length! I'm done frothing now.
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scg
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response 20 of 42:
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Jan 28 20:32 UTC 1995 |
As a point of interest, here's the list from /etc/group of the people who can
post to the motd:
motd:*:45:mdw,meg,mju,morel,mta,popcorn,remmers,steve,gregc,srw,carl,carson,\
scg,aruba,rcurl
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chelsea
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response 21 of 42:
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Jan 28 20:34 UTC 1995 |
Cool. So we'll think of it as a second announcements item, maybe
one that reaches folks who don't do Agora because of its bulk.
And anyone who has an announcement they'd like posted there can
send the text to Valerie with a good chance it'll be entered.
And if something really important needs to catch everyone's attention
we'll find a way to do that if and when the problem comes up.
I have no problem with that. And I'm *not* being sarcastic.
My question was answered.
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gregc
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response 22 of 42:
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Jan 28 20:47 UTC 1995 |
Rane's suggestion #3, while a good idea, would be difficult to implement.
The current mechanism for motd, is simply a list of filenames that the
login program dumps to stdout when you log in. To implement a pager or
a menu mechanism, we would need to modify the login program. That's
a software change, and it's dubious when(or if)) that work could be done.
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lilmo
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response 23 of 42:
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Jan 28 21:43 UTC 1995 |
The current MOTD system seems reasonable; perhaps a line could be added to the
end to the effect: "Problems or submissions with MOTD to popcorn" or other
appropriate person.
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andyv
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response 24 of 42:
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Jan 28 21:59 UTC 1995 |
This conversation sure has digressed. So I'll add to it :-) I wish I lived
inthe A2 area to take advantage of the sale. We don't have a decent bookstore
within 90 miles.
I would like the motd to have a very short topic in caps followed by a
note. That way I can recognize the difference of additions when it flashes
by.
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