response 1 of 52:

Mar 23 01:42 UTC 1997

if robh might come back if jan gets his web filter idea up, Im sure he'll want
to resume fw'ing this conf.  "Intro" was started as an experiment.  I'd like
to see some stats on who is actually reading/using it and if it is serving
its purpose.  Anyone know how many .intro.cf files are in exsistence? 
If every new user still chooses to go to agora, then Intro is not working.
I think its time to judge this conf's effectiveness.

response 3 of 52:

Mar 23 21:17 UTC 1997

I think cfadmin should include fw'ship of this conf...the cfadmins can take
turns or something

response 5 of 52:

Mar 23 22:44 UTC 1997

I agree that it shouldn't be tacked on to cfadm duties, but it'd
probably be a good idea for the job to rotate, given the nature
of the conference.

response 7 of 52:

Mar 24 02:03 UTC 1997

Folks, just like me after tonight, Robh is gone, and enjoying it quite a lot.
Move on.

response 9 of 52:

Mar 24 15:46 UTC 1997

so it should have several fw's instead of just one, because who is going to
read all theconfs...thats why it makes sense to have al the cfadms be
co-fw's..no extra pressure, they can just link when they see something..I dont
see the time constraints argument here

response 11 of 52:

Mar 24 17:09 UTC 1997

I think Intro has worked out great.  However, if Robh won't be the FW anymore,
then there is a problem.  Rob did a great job at finding items.

response 13 of 52:

Mar 25 01:28 UTC 1997

Right.  There where those who thought serving up a moderated
conference as the default was simply unacceptable.  

response 15 of 52:

Mar 25 13:02 UTC 1997

Basing a decision on the default conference on the length of newuser
text seems to me like the tail wagging the dog. Maybe newuser is too
verbose, but that's a separate issue, and in dealing with it, all
the newuser text should be looked at, not just one particular
section.

With the help of the 'grep' command, I looked through old minutes
for discussion of the default conference issue. Here's what I found:

May 29, 1996
------------
>  * Rob asked for opinions on the Intro conference.  Valerie volunteered to
> write a wrapper program to put around bbs to ask users whether they prefer
> their default conference to be Agora or Intro.  We will re-evaluate the
> success of the Intro conference in 3 months.

August 26, 1996
---------------
> 10 the first. Intro conference
> 
>   This agenda item was entered to discuss the question of whether the intro
>   conference should become the default conference.
>   
>   There was some discussion on this question.
>   
>   Srw suggested that it should become the default conference.
>   Mta suggested that there should still be a choice.
>   
>   The question was tabled until the next meeting with the idea that 
>   discussion would continue in coop.

So it looks like the re-evaluation occurred after 3 months,
opinion of the board was divided, the matter was dropped, and
the status quo maintained. I certainly don't see any decision
to drop Agora as a default if Intro is a "success" (whatever
that means; were criteria for "success" ever pinned down?).
Right now it seems like a non-success, because there's no fw, and
this is a conference that *requires* an active fw.

I suppose it's appropriate to continue the discussion of default
conferences in this item. The current situation illustrates one of
the problems I had with the Intro conference concept all along: The
fairwitness has to follow what's going on in all the other conferences
(a *big* commitment), so its viability depends on there being someone
willing to do that. And the result is a conference whose content
reflects the editorial judgement of one person, which could be good
or bad depending on the person. I thought Rob did a nice job with it,
but Intro was his "baby", I don't recall anybody but him expressing
interest in doing the fw'ing at the time, and I don't see volunteers
clamoring to do it now either. In any event, the fw choice would have
to be made carefully because of the editorial judgement issue.

Personally, I'd like to see Agora stay as a default conference option.
We certainly shouldn't consider dropping it when the future of Intro
is up in the air.

response 19 of 52:

Mar 26 00:14 UTC 1997

Maybe the intro FW wouldn't have to follow so many conferences personally.
We could just train all conference participants to mail nominations for
linking to intro to the intro fw.

response 21 of 52:

Mar 26 19:29 UTC 1997

yeah actually it would, as long as they didn't go insane with it...
you know we could recommend like one itemevery so often.

response 23 of 52:

Mar 26 22:42 UTC 1997

To simplify it, just make one fw from each conf an intro co-fw