response 26 of 143:

Sep 30 21:30 UTC 1996

rcurl--by that logic, nobody should be tought how to read until they find out
what great literature is on their own.  Of course everybody should at least
have access to minutes, and those who don't know that grex has a board should
be told.   

response 28 of 143:

Sep 30 23:35 UTC 1996

Also, the last thing Grex needs is another mailing list.  A gigantic mailing
list like Kerouac proposes would use up lots of cpu time, which is already
scarce, and it would fill up lots of users' mailboxes.  A lot of users create
accounts on Grex and then never come back.  Many of them would subscribe to
such a list.  This would guarantee lots more used space in the mail spool
directory.  No thanks.  The information is already available in a conference,
without all that overhead.

New users are pointed to the conferences in a lot of different ways.  Within
the conferences, users are pointed to co-op once they've been around the
system long enough to have some idea of how things work.  I don't think co-op
is so hidden that we need to dump board agendas and meeting minutes on
unwilling users who just came here to use the e-mail system anyway.

Re 25: Actually, Marcus has control over the newuser code, not Jan.  Jan's
version of it is wnu (web newuser).

response 30 of 143:

Oct 1 03:08 UTC 1996

Too much mail?  Maybe you need to think of it in a little 
more positive fashion.   You are popular with many pen pals.

response 32 of 143:

Oct 1 07:19 UTC 1996

You can lead a user to politics, but you can't make them imbibe. I think
the access to the "business" of Grex is fine the way it is. Interested people
will find it. Others have their fun their own way. This is a *user* motivated
system, not a nursery.

response 34 of 143:

Oct 1 16:02 UTC 1996

well regarding the motd, slince it seems ineffective to simply have the motd
flash by on the screen at login, why not change it so userse are prompted
afterlogging in:

"Today is Tuesday, October 1st...would you like to read today's
announcements? (y/n)"

This at least gives users time to prepare to read them, and if they
say no, they can be prompted:

"Would you like to save today's announcements and read them
later?"  (y/n), and it would save them in a default file in home
directory like "announce" or something.  Any anytime after they are logged
in that they have a minute and want to read the motd, or a fe days worh if
they havent been keeping up, type !motd and the date....etc

Not a mailing list but at least a better way of presenting the motd.
I'm convinced that very people read it as current because it goes by
too fast, and since the document would be optional, the boardminutes
and other announcements could be attached when necessary.

response 36 of 143:

Oct 1 16:20 UTC 1996

#35...but if you didnt read coop, wouldnt you be more receptive to
having a motd file thatyou could read at your pleasure?

response 38 of 143:

Oct 1 18:02 UTC 1996

Kerouac, it ain't broke.  Grex doesn't need this.

(Incidentally, you can type "!motd" to see the motd anytime.)

response 40 of 143:

Oct 1 19:11 UTC 1996

If people don't read Co-op because they DON'T WANT TO (bizarre concept),
then how will a mailing list or automatic program help matters?  I can
only see it making our new users ticked off at us.  "I'm coming in on
this really slow connection of yours, I just want to read my mail and
talk to my friend, and suddenly I have to wade through all this crap
in my mailbox?  If I wanted to take part in your precious little
policy conference, I know damn well how to get there myself!  Now leave
me alone!"

Actually, we could combine kerouac's two suggestions - anyone can
get free POP access from Grex, but they have to read every item
in Co-op once a week or their account gets deleted.  We could
probably handle the two or three users who took us up on that.  >8)

response 42 of 143:

Oct 1 20:11 UTC 1996

   kerouac, m-net's communication problems arose from board members not
reading or responding in the policy conference there (for reasons that really
don't belong here), and therefore falling out of touch with the users. i doubt
that's likely to happen on grex.

response 44 of 143:

Oct 1 20:59 UTC 1996

I beg to differ.  All the board do read coop, unless they are forced out for
one reason or another. 

response 46 of 143:

Oct 1 23:19 UTC 1996

Kerouac, if you can't remember back to why the motd is fine the way it is,
then I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't remember the Move conf. reasons
either.  Of course, you seem to be answering your own questions more often
than not, in which case you can use Control-C to abort your response and save
me the trouble of listening to the loose connections in your memory circuits.

I hate to be that rude, but you *don't* have to keep repeating yourself.

response 48 of 143:

Oct 1 23:49 UTC 1996

Math for Grexers!
  
The number of users who read coop is inversely proportional to the number of
users who can stand kerouac's posts