Re: Dealing with requests for faq by e-mail

Lani Teshima-Miller (teshima@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu)
Thu, 26 Jan 1995 09:39:57 -1000

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"J.D. Falk" <jdfalk@cais.cais.com> wrote:
> Another thing to remember, here, is that though we're all FAQ
> maintainers (or at least pretty close), some FAQs are of more interest to
> the clueless newbie than others.

Well said! Some of yous might maintain FAQs on very specialized and/or
advanced computer applications where the majority of readers may be
very Unix-savvy...

Hobby-related groups (the rec.* groups, for example) will tend to
magnet those who are new to computers and are seeing what's out there.
While we have many computer and professional types on
rec.arts.bodyart, we also get *a lot* of "part-time readers" with
commercial accounts (AOL, Prodigy, etc.) who can barely write
(unfortunately) at a sixth grade level. In fact, I have what I call my
"AOL FAQ" that I send out via private email to those people who have
no awareness or regard for netiquette. While the Welcome FAQ that I
post includes all the info on netiquette and news.newusers.announce,
I'm afraid some of these people don't realize that THEY are the ones
that need to read those files.

The "AOL FAQ" isn't so much about AOL, as it is their importance for
manually inserting the attribution line (now that AOL's updated
software did away with it altogether--they cut off the foot to cure an
ingrown toenail, if you ask me) and including relevant quotes in
formats people will recognize as quoted material.

This FAQ (which was primarily the effort of another person who uses
AOL and is very usenet-savvy) seems to be helping--they are posting
more standard-looking posts and are finally getting responses from
others (since the dorky posts tend just to get ignored in our group).

Maybe it's because I'm a journalist-turned-librarian--I have an innate
desire to help people by providing information, as well as empowering
them with the proper tools to function around here.

Lani Teshima-Miller (teshima@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.edu) "Sea Hare" o/ /_/_/
UH School of Library & Info Studies. "Whatever the cost of our o|<0_0>------*
libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant \=^-| |_| |
nation." -Walter Cronkite [R.a.b.bit--FAQ Maintainer: "Think Ink!"] \_B}\_B}

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