> He said my FAQ was too large for him to print
> himself. I told him my files were too large to print (it's now
> almost 300k altogether).
I hope you're not posting it as a single file. I believe
that the maximum article size specified by the standard is
64K (though when I last checked I was not able to find this
limit in 1036, 977, or 822).
> I would like to ask all of you what your suggestions are. I do
> *NOT* want to make an exception and start doing something I'll
> regret. I don't want to have to help someone because their
> online service is dysfunctional. I am providing online information,
> and am not in the publishing business.
I do have a reputation for being cruel and heartless and
short on patience, so you may want to take this with a grain
of salt, but I recommend following that line exactly. It's
not your responsibility. You have provided the information
already, and the problem that he has lies with his software.
If AOL's news software prevents him from downloading your
FAQ, he should complain to them. You might want to point
him at the rtfm archive, but I wouldn't go further than
that.
On the other hand, remember that you're not bound by any
rules of consistency. You are not an elected official and
have no particular standards of conduct to live up to. If
you were to do this particular favor for this particular
person, I really don't think that would obligate you in any
way, ethically or otherwise, to perform it for all comers.
> Also, does anyone know how someone from AOL could correctly
> download large FAQ files to their computers? It would probably
> be best if I could just give him specific directions, in case
> some other AOLer has the same request.
You might. Personally, I would draw the line at giving
much system- or platform-specific advice in the FAQ. Again,
the proper place for them to go is to AOL support if they
have a question like this, and there's no need for you to
play that role.
I know that my advice may sound really cold-hearted, or not
in the spirit of freedom of information, or whatever, but
the net has gotten to be a mighty big place. I'm not above
doing favors for users in a tight spot, and have bent or
broken the rules of FAQ maintenance and moderation and
system administration on occasion. But no one can play
nanny for ten million users; we have to remember that the
information exchange here is stratified in a certain way,
and the way to make things most efficient for everyone
involved is to respect that stratification.
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