response 10 of 39:

Dec 5 05:22 UTC 2003

I'm in favor of creating new user mailboxes with a message included 
which does two basic things:  Serves as a reminder of the terms of 
use, and explains briefly what Grex is about and how to participate.

How the message is crafted will go a long way toward determining the 
effect it has, assume anyone actually to read it.

If a poll is to be conducted, I would not want to see it implemented 
any other way than in bbs, though responses could be sent by email 
if the user wishes to remain private about their answers.  The 
intitial message referred to above could link or point to the poll/
survey, but spamming people with surveys is still spamming them.

Sapna, one thing you've mentioned a bit is the MOTD, and this is a 
sore point for a lot of people.  I don't know why it is such a big 
deal, but a lot of people get annoyed when the MOTD gets large, and 
a lot of people don't ever even see it.  People get practiced at 
ignoring it, even if it doesn't scroll past them and out of view 
faster than thay can read it.  The upshot is, I don't have anything 
against using the MOTD, but I don't think it is nearly as effective 
a communication tool as you seem to think it would be.  I could be 
wrong, though.

Despite the way jp2 went about it, the notion of somehow 
selectively contacting non-member users who login within a certain 
time period just to find out what keeps them from joining up is 
intriguing to me.  It presents sort of a slice of life, or a 
statistical sample which can be valuable for several things, as the 
result jp2 claims appear to suggest.  When the new machine is up, 
perhaps implementing an automated system which sends an email 
crafted by a Grex outreach person or team to non-member users 
logging in on a specific day or week, a few times a year, might be a 
n interesting idea.