This is an excellent goal.
> 2. I am not writing this FAQ list format to handle only conversion
> to HTML. If accepted and implemented, I will write conversion
> utilities to AND from the following: [list excised]
Also an excellent goal.
> If people don't want to use my format, it would make things a whole
> lot easier if they used [Tom's] format instead of their own.
OK, but didn't his proposal _just_ come out? I maintain FAQs for four
separate groups, and reediting them will be a nontrivial matter. I
haven't had time to review _his_ document yet, much less this one.
> I'd almost go so far as to request to the moderator that FAQ lists to
> be posted to news.answers MUST follow whatever format gets decided on.
I will disagree with this here. I think the most that one can ask of
volunteers is to see whatever format is decided on as something to
be migrated towards, as each is rewritten. (They need to be rewritten
about every 18 months or so, I've found).
> It really does the end readers a lot of good to have the FAQ list in a
> ``common'' format that conversion utilities are available for.
Today, the most common _utility_ that is involved with reading FAQs is
the undigestify command in trn and other newsreaders. Whatever solution
is settled upon by necessity *must* be backwards compatible with the RFC
1153 format to not disenfranchise a large set of net.users, who may
continue for some time to be in the majority, vs. the few lucky folks
who have hypertext facilities available.
> And I know many of you reading this are about to break a vein because
> you feel so laboured just to have to write FAQ lists that it should be
> in "whatever damn format I want, who cares if people reading it can't
> convert it...
Right now, the FAQs being posted are being maintained to be easily *human*
readable. Considerations of automatic *machine* readability for conversion
purposes are good, but tradeoffs will have to be made so human readability
is conserved.
As an FAQ maintainer, I personally am all for coming up with suggested
standards to migrate towards, for headers, digests, and hypertext links.
>From prior experience on the faq-maintainers list, merely getting a
consensus on _these_ issues will be difficult; getting a consensus on how
the _text_ should look will not occur. You've got your work cut out for you.
Warm up your powers of persuasion :-)
Frankly, I think you've made two (non-technical) errors in your proposal.
One, you've made it without finding out if there has been any prior
discussion, consensus, or conclusion amongst current FAQ maintainers
about these issues. [There has been.] I believe this may account for
some of the hostility you may have perceived. Second, by making a
(hopefully offhand!) comment about rejecting posts from news.answers,
you've hit an _emotional_ nerve, and you're *definitely* going to get
hostility from this. IMHO, people respond much better to being asked to
do something, not to (what's taken as) an implied threat. FAQ maintainers
are only human, anyway.
> "... That's the way *I* want it because I'm writing it." Very sad.
Finally, and most unfortunately IMHO, in the last quoted paragraph you've
exhibited some of the same "attitude" you're accusing others of. In
particular, some people may read this proposal as saying *you* want people
to change their postings just because *you* say so, and you don't care
what *they* have to do to rewrite them. [After rereading what you've
posted a few times, I doubt that's how you meant for it to be taken,
but I can see how someone might find it so.]
This is not intended as a flame, just an observation:
Participation in USENET is best done with a very, very, thick skin.
In summary, I hope both you and Tom keep on with your proposal work.
It's a direction that's very much needed, for the near future. But for
the immediate present, please be realistic about time frames, and the
practicality of imposing requirements when considering the volunteer
nature of FAQ maintainers.
Mark Linimon
--
Mark Linimon / Lonesome Dove Computing Services / Roanoke, Virginia
{chinacat,uunet}!nominil!linimon || linimon@lonesome.com
"It's a small town, son, may I ask what you're doing here?"
I am coming to believe that Netnews is the digital equivalent of junk food...
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