So I guess the first order of business is, who out there is
a helper?  Do you have your helper flag on all the time, or
only some of the time?

Another thing I'd like to keep track of is:  What sorts of things
are you knowledgable about?  Hopefully, when we get questions
about topics we aren't familiar with, we can check here and find
someone to refer the new users to.  I.e., if someone asks me
a question about maol or Elm, I can handle it no problem, but I
don't know a thing about Pine.  So if someone asks me a Pine
question, I can refer them to a helper who is familiar with that
program, like kaplan.

42 responses total.

Needless to say, I always have my helper flag turned on.

Things I know pretty well:

        Picospan
        Unix (cshell)
        C programming
        Usenet (trn)
        Elm (also regular mail)
        Nethack (hey, I've gotten questions about this!)
        telnet
        ftp
        Lynx

I have a macro that turns my helper flag on for Picospan and off in
a shell. I'd hesitate to make a formal list, but I've been successfully
answering questions concerning Picospan, internet stuff, Pine and
mail, and elementary unix. Then, there are the unsuccesses....

I'm experimenting with leaving the helper flag on all the time.
So far, so good...

I don't consider myself an expert about anything here, however
I'll gladly field any question, providing that the person
doesn't expect an immediate answer.  I do know quite a bit about
the internet, lynx, the web, trn, elm, mail, picospan, unix
basics and the Saturday Morning walks.

Most users I'v helped seem to want an immediate answer. I have on occasion
said I'd get back to some, and have, but more often than not there is
no acknowledgement. 

A suggestion to include any time !write help is mentioned - after
asking for help, *wait* up to a minute, as the helper may be busy
and has to properly escape what he/she is working on. (I have had
users write for help, and then EOF before I can get to them.)

 My flag is always on. It is sometimes annoying, but I never let that show.

My flag is only on occasionally, when I have the time to deal with help
requests, which can take quite a long time.  I am farily knowledgable in
Picospan, Pico, Pine, Elementary Unix, some Internet stuff, party, telnet,
ftp, and some other things.

My flag is always on, but I do things like leave town for three months at a
time...  
I know just barely enough to be able to find an answer for people or
find someone who does have an answer...

There's no problem with your leaving town for three months,
as long as you sign off first.  >8)

My helper flag is on, unless I telnet out.  then I shut it off.
I am knowledgeable about grex itself, how to get around, things
to look at, etc.  I know a smattering of unix, and a little bit
of other general questions.

Welcome to the clan, brenda. We at least don't lack ego, even if we lack unix.

About 2/3 of the time I login, there is no other helper with a flag on.
Does this mean that a lot of users seeking help get the "no helpers
available" message? It would be useful to get better statistics on
this, but it is true that helpers aren't on all the time. Do you think
that part of the problem is that it takes a conscious effort to turn
on one's helper flag, which is "too much trouble". What about
recommending that helpers have an auto-helper-flag-on script, and
that they intentionally turn it off if they want. It would be a small
price to pay for *serious* helpers (I'm not suggesting something I
wouldn't do myself - I have such a script for when I enter picospan).

I have my .login file set up to turn my flag on.  I'm sure most
of the helpers do this, after all, they should know how.  >8)

I think the problem, rcurl, is that we just don't have that many
people who want to be helpers.  It can be annoying - I had to spend
45 minutes with someone on Saturday, who not only did know the answers,
he wasn't even sure of the questions.  "Of course I can download
on this machine!"  (10 minutes later)  "What does download mean,
exactly?  Is that when you copy files from one disk to another?"
Yeah, it can be frustrating...

As for how many people get the "no helpers available" flag,
I couldn't tell you.  Probably a few.

If there is anyone that would like to be a helper, but doesn't want
to be interrupted while running a given program, I have written a 
few scripts that could easily be redone.

I like to turn my flag off when I'm using vi, write or talk.  The
scripts are /u/carl/bin/{vi,write,talk}.  What they do is read my
current flag setting, turn the flag off, run the real program,
then restore the previous flag setting.

Let me know if anyone would like help setting up these scripts to
work for their accounts.

carl, as far as I know, write-help will not interrupt you while
you're writing someone else.  It's never happened to me.

Still, that's a useful set of scripts!

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BTW, proof that even the Guide-Father can be wrong - I was ntalk-ing
to someone yesterday, and someone wrote me, and I could see it.
So ignore my previous comments about "that won't work."

Well I have the flag on all the time exept in pine. I know party pretty well
decent understanding of pine. But learning the rest.

I've been around since Moses was in knickers, but I'm just now getting around 
to giving the helper thing a try.  I'm not an expert on anything -- but
I can make my way around pretty well and usually know who *can answer*
questions.

I have one question -- do help seekers use write or chat?  I lost/ utterly
confused my first seeker in trying to figure that out.

Help-seekers can use either one.  The defaults for the commands
in the menu and Lynx shells are both "chat".  Which annoyed me to
no end, until the wonderful "mesg -m l" command came to be.  >8)

I much prefer chat and always use it, but somehow write-help sometimes
ends up in write, and sometimes in chat. Why is that? Does write help
in bbs invoke write?

write help invokes write.  chat help invokes chat.

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Thank you for #24 - I saw allusions to this, but didn't know the full
story. 

Why does it have to be a !write(chat) help anyway?  Why not !tel help?  ('Tis
what *I* usually use, but then, I'm not a big fan of !writing....)

Telegram to helper robh on ttyh5 at 11:03...
How do I change my shell to menu?

Telegram from robh on ttyh5 at 11:03...
Which shell do you have now?

Telegram to helper ajax on ttyh2 at 11:04...
I have the Lynx shell.

Telegram from ajax on ttyh2 at 11:04...
Um, okay, why are you telling me this?

Telegram to helper popcorn on ttyh7 at 11:04...
Because you asked me!

Telegram from popcorn on ttyh7 at 11:05...
Sorry, I asked you what?

Telegram from robh on ttyh5 at 11:05...
Are you still there?  Do you know what shell you use?

Telegram to helper ryan1 on ttyp5 at 11:05...
Help!  I don't know what to do!

(and so on)

Remember that every helper is selected randomly *every* time "write help"
is run.  We could theoretically set things up so that each "tel help"
went to the same person, but that would be quite a programming chore.
Easier to make people use write.

(And I know you're thinking "But can't the just 'tel robh' instead of
'tel help' the second time?  Sure they can.  Do you think every
help-seeker is going to know how to do that?  I betcha a few of them
won't have any idea.)

Interesting and amusing.  I'll put a fix for this onto my Todo list.
If you are writing help, and the last person you wrote was a helper, then
prefer that helper.

*eep*  Jan, do you care that I teled you for help instead of writing??

Not especially.  But if you send a second tel, make sure you "tel janc"
instead of doing another "tel help".

Rob, they *can't* do "tel davel" the second time ... not & get through, that
is.  I usually have my helper perms on but all others off.

Yes they can, if they get the request in within four minutes
of your response.  Even if your perms are turned off.  (Thanks
to popcorn for showing me this.)

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re 31:  Yep, that's what I did.  (= (tel janc that is.)

Hmph.

Is BitchX allowed?

If BitchX is an IRC client, then at least in theory, grex members (that is
people who pay $6 per month or $60 per year) should be able to run it.  If
it's a bot or a server, then no, it will not run on grex.

BitchX is a command line interface (CLI) IRC client.  (As opposed to a 
GUI IRC client, that would require X.)  I haven't successfully used it, 
as my FreeBSD box isn't online at the moment, but it should run on grex. 
Assuming, of course, that the person attempting to use it is a member...

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss