response 26 of 51:

Apr 27 05:08 UTC 1995

        Well, as a user of both, i see what sidhe and chelsea were getting
at. It DOES feel like a put-down, no matter how it was intended.
Re-Write, please!

response 28 of 51:

Apr 27 10:39 UTC 1995

Actually, both party & picospan were on grex from the beginning.
Further back than that, party is very nearly as old as picospan.

response 30 of 51:

Apr 27 14:16 UTC 1995

<sigh>  Some history here.
There have been a number of users who discovered Grex, stumbled into party
before finding the conferences, happened to find something unpleasant
going on in party, decided that's what Grex was all about, and *left*,
without ever discovering the conferences.  *That's* why I put the note in
the party newbie message: to ask people not to judge all of Grex by the
random conversation they may happen to find in party at any given moment.
Not to insult party users.

Re Mary's sarcastic response about the motd: The whole point of *having* a
party news file is to be able to reach party people and tell them about
discussions like the one in this item, since there's currently no way to
reach all partiers.  The sample party news file I posted has a pointer in
it to tell people about *this* item.  By having a party news file, we have
a standard way to point people to future discussions about party, here in
the co-op conference.  Right now, partiers don't have a way to reach all
other partiers to discuss the future of party; about the best you can do is
hang out in party 24 hours a day and try to talk to everyone who comes
through.  By having a party news file that can point people to discussions
about party in the co-op conference, partiers end up with more control over
how party operates.

Re 29: The only channel where people can look back later and see what
you've written is the main party channel.  (In certain rare cases, party
logs are left around for the other channels.  Those are readable only by
root, and staff deletes those without reading them.)

response 32 of 51:

Apr 27 16:21 UTC 1995

I like the newbie message, personally. Being one of those who usually uses
party, I know that I wouldn't have been quite as confused by everything if I'd
read it before  stumbling made it easy for me.  I think people gravitate
towards party just because  you do have thta supportive environment, and don't
feel quite as seperated from everyone, although I do agree the conferences stay
more on a subject.  Anyway, good idea, i say.

response 34 of 51:

Apr 27 21:01 UTC 1995

s /affected/involved

response 36 of 51:

Apr 28 02:33 UTC 1995

I agree w/ steve(whichever responce it was) i have just recently started surfin
the net..and was introduced to Grex by one of my friends, he like many people i
think,told me first 'bout party and how interesting it was.I must had be for a
month befor 

 where as in party questions can be answered quite quickly.unfortunatly you are
 not garunteed that the person you are lookin for is in party.ohh well nuff of
 this senseless babbling...think the *motd*s are a decient idea.and am indt
 w/respecttonewbinote.

response 38 of 51:

Apr 28 14:14 UTC 1995

Um, could you try entering that again?  Grex doesn't word wrap, so you
have to press Enter before you get to the 80th column of the screen.

response 40 of 51:

Apr 28 17:21 UTC 1995

Sorry about the word wrap thing.  Used to the U.  It said something like...
Personally, I like the newuser message and think it will be a great help.
I also don't mind getting a party motd when there's info that all partiers 
should know.  My only concern is that if the motd is always there and 
always the same, people will begin to ignore it after awhile.  I know...
I ignore the UM login motd everyday...
Also, I use party more than I read the conferences on grex b/c I have 
enough other conferences and usenet groups to keep up with.  Grex party is 
like a phone call, conferences are more like mail.  Glad to hea
second class citizen because of my party use.  (damn.  can't remember that
word wrap thing.)

response 42 of 51:

Apr 29 01:27 UTC 1995

   There is a big reason that a lot of people on party dont use the 
confs:  grex is too slow!  Unless one reads the confs every day, one 
falls helplessly behind and has to grow old and gray haired trying to read
everything he has missed.  Not everyone uses grex every day, and those who
use it 1-3 times a week would have to allocate serious amounts of time to keep
up.  I guarantee you that if grex was running on 9600 baud for everyone, you
would have a lot more people using the confs.
   Party as a conf is just a matter of covenience and if the right groups 
of people are on, you can have and do have conversations that are just as
substantive as anything in the confs.
   And if it provokes substantive conversation and community interaction,
then I think Party is serving its partof Grex's mission.

response 44 of 51:

Apr 29 14:10 UTC 1995

On the other hand, real-time chat services are very popular wherever
they're offered, regardless of how fast the system is.

I have noticed that some people who start out in party find their way
into the conferences eventually.  If party hadn't been there as an
initial come-on, they might not be on Grex at all.

I'm mainly a conference person but enjoy party also, and often stop by
there when I just want to unwind for a bit.

Question on the new party messages:  Under what circumstances is the
party.news file displayed to the user?  It hasn't been shown to me at
all since it was installed, and I've joined party a couple of times.

Suggestion:  Change the 1-line intro that people see every time they
join party to indicate how to see the party.news file -- e.g. install a
party.news command, so that you could say "type !party.news to see the
latest party news", or something like that.

response 46 of 51:

May 2 07:28 UTC 1995

I tried to read the MOTD thing that you were talking about in #31, 
Valerie, but was told that there was no match.  Are you *sure* that
it is located in /usr/spool/party/motd*/party.welcome?

response 48 of 51:

May 3 19:17 UTC 1995

I like it.