a humble suggestion for newbie guidance

[Robert P. J. Day]

   undoubtedly making myself even more unpopular, let me throw out a 
short suggestion that will help newbies acclimate themselves here more 
quickly.

   while there have been numerous references to ESR's legendary "how to 
ask questions" FAQ, and it does contain a wealth of useful info, my 
main complaint is that it is just too wordy, and that it tries to 
cover every etiquette-related blunder imaginable.

   instead, what is needed is a short, concise list of *essential* 
newbie advice -- what you would call absolutely inviolable rules -- 
that can act as at least a starting point.  4, maybe 5 bits of advice 
that will, at a minimum, give newbies a flavor of how things work 
here.  that can be *followed* by more detailed info as they get used 
to life on the mailing list.

   as a first draft:

dear newbies:

   welcome.  here are some rules.  there are more, but if you want to 
post to this list, never, ever, *ever* break these.

1) make sure you're on the right list.  don't post to the fedora core 
list unless your post has something to do with fedora core.  at least 
not right away. :-)

2) use a useful and informative subject line.  never, ever, ever use a 
blank subject line, or one that contains any variation of "help", 
"HELP", "PLEASE HELP!!", "URGENT!" or "please read this".  pack as 
much information as you can into, say, 10 words.

3) if you're replying to another post, do not top post.  your reply 
should always *follow* the text you are referring to, not precede it. 
and no, we don't care how you did it where you come from.  this war 
has been fought and won.  get over it.

(also, please trim any unnecessary verbiage from what you're replying 
to.  you should include *only* the part of the article that your 
response relates to.  yes, it takes a few extra seconds to tidy things 
up that way.  get used to it.)

4) no HTML.  really.  we mean it.  no.

5) keep your signatures short and sweet.  it's useful to know who you 
are, where you work, what you do, etc.  that's cool.  it is decidedly 
not useful to know your views on religion, abortion, animal rights, 
the second amendment or the fact that you still haven't gotten over 
bill clinton.  we don't care.

(and, if it's *at* *all* possible, if you're posting from work, can 
you arrange to turn off those annoying 250-line official, company 
policy signatures that were invented by your corporate lawyers who 
clearly had too much time on their hands one day?  that would be just 
ducky.)

   there is, of course, more neat stuff you should know about google, 
the list archives, nifty web sites and the like.  but the above is a 
*really* solid foundation to build on.

   thoughts?



rday