On 2 Jun 2007 at 17:05, Mike Webb wrote:
> > The most recent version (10.2) of the FAQ was published in April 2002,
> > and is now *very* out of date. A new version is being prepared.
> I'm interested in knowing what the status of the update project is and
> how I might be able to help. How do I find out and who do I contact?
The status of the FAQ is 'on hold', but it does not have to be like
that. The main problem is not the updating of the FAQ itself -- it is
how we would replace the old FAQ with the new FAQ on rtfm.mit.edu
Now I will repeat a post to ACCMAIL, 15 October 2006 ...
Here is a reminder of the problem of updating the ACCMAIL FAQ.
It is published initially on news.answers and other newsgroups,
then propagated to web sites such as
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/internet-services/access-via-email/
The published FAQ is years out of date, but unfortunately I
don't have any way of updating it, because Gerry Boyd never went
through the process of transferring posting described in
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/news-answers/postapproval-guidelines/
We should have done this in 2002, but now it is too late.
However, I think it is worth trying to contact the people who
admin the usenet groups to find out if there is some way to
circumvent the normal procedures.
... and from a post to the faq-maintainers list, 25 October 2006 ...
The published FAQ is years out of date, but unfortunately we
don't have any way of updating it, because we never went through
the process of transferring posting described in
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/news-answers/postapproval-guidelines/
Gerry Boyd is no longer with us, so we cannot initiate a normal
transfer. Email to the *.answers moderation team and to
faq-admin`at`faqs.org always bounces back. There seems to be no
way of getting through to them.
... and from a reply to that post ...
It is important to understand that www.faqs.org is an
independent effort by someone who believed that creating a web
version of the FAQs would be beneficial. Indeed it was.
However it is presently not updating itself as it had been. The
last update was sometime in 2004 I believe. In fact, everything
at www.faqs.org is out of date and is no longer a reliable
resource for Usenet Faqs. One task at present is getting the
word out on that.
And similar to your situation, that domain appears to be running
abandoned. Efforts by several of us to contact the owner have
been unsuccessful. That same person was responsible for this
list's predecessor but that ended about the same time his web
site started to cease updating.
The authoritative version of all FAQs are posted at rtfm.mit.edu
in plain text and can be accessed using standard FTP commands.
... and from discussion following that post ...
> Is the FAQ archived at rtfm.mit.edu?
Yes, under
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services/
> Is it on the automated FAQ server?
Yes. That is probably how most people get it.
There are hundreds of web pages, old and new, giving
instructions on how to retrieve the FAQ from rtfm.mit.edu, eg:
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Msg: send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
Although the FAQ was last edited in April 2004, it was
auto-posted weekly until May 29 2006 to alt.internet.services,
alt.online-service, alt.bbs.internet, alt.answers,
comp.mail.misc, comp.answers, news.newusers.questions,
news.answers
Posting history at
http://groups.google.com/groups/profile?enc_user=G7PGqRAAAADjLsMkrJWOgE38Be_uyRWR
(try http://tinyurl.com/2sd9wu if that URL breaks on the line).
Summarising ...
The current old FAQ is now effectively useless.
Most people find the FAQ through searches or links, which lead them
either to rtfm.mit.edu, usenet archives, or web pages which derive
data from those sources. The defunct faqs.org is also an important
information source.
Nobody seems to know how to transfer FAQ posting from a maintainer
who has died. The faq-maintainers list is not very active (only 12
posts this year). But I will try them again.
The old FAQ should be replaced. Meanwhile the ACCMAIL archives at
http://www.mail-archive.com/accmail@listserv.aol.com/
and
http://news.gmane.org/gmane.mail.emailonly/
are significant alternative referral sources.
::: SZS :::
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