Quite a project, Micahel. Looks good.
A couple of comments interspersed below .
> OK, I've heard the call for an advanced list and I I'll see what I can do
> over the next 2 days. Why 2 days? Because I'm taking down post.office and
> putting up the iMS listserver (which I'm writing from scratch now). Once its
> up, I'll set up a CF mailing list that's moderated only, but of a special
> type. Anyone can read from the list.
> Only a few people can post. Posters are
> set by recommendation from a current poster.
Can you compile a 'grandfathered' list of historically productive
cf-talk members in order to streamline the start up of the posting
privileged list?
> If a post is off topic, the privilege is removed.
>Any message can be posted to the list by anyone but it
> will go into a queue (unless posted by a moderator). Any moderator can
> review the queue and say which posts should go to the list.
As hand moderation is labor/time intensive one technique used on other
lists might be worth looking at: id est - trusted poster's messages are
automatically propagated to the list until such a time the mods decide
that it is waranted that trust has been besmirched and a poster's
messages need to pass through the queueing filter.
> After a post is
> answered, it MUST be placed into a FAQ so that the question will not be
> posted again. A switch will be placed into the moderator review section to
> allow a moderator to return a post with a message of "look in the FAQ".
> How does this sound?
I would suggest a labelling standard such that a question:answer pair
can be easily indexed along the folllowing fields;
software version [CFAS4_5_2_sp2]
general topic [SQL, BUG, INSTALL, PROCEDURE, STYLE, etc.]
specific topic [QUERY, $TAGNAME, HTML, SCRIPT, etc.]
answer_date (guide to when update to faq entry might need to be reviewed)
code_included_y_n (sometimes a texutal answer is best, sometimes example
code speaks most clearly)
reference_frequency (how many times has this question been asked or looked up
in gaq(s) )
Because answers can depend heavily on whcih version of CF is being used,
maybe a cvs like tree would work?
Good prep work on the above will reduce workload later, especially if any
robo-mod functionality can parse new questions and correlate a rtfaq response
if an answer exists or flag the new question as needing de novo attention.
Hmmm ... maybe a bit much to code now???
I don't think writing a faq that delineates how to topic code a subject
line will work that well - people don't think that way - they just want to ask
a question and get an answer. The faq is what needs to be organized as
well as possible - both to make it useful and to make it easy for mods
(or a robo-mod script) to match questionX with answerY.
> Would you (the community) like any changes? I know it
> sounds strict, but it allows us to have a question/answer only list that
> stays on topic.
What you are proposing is an interactive reference that is going to
be a lot of work and will be a direct reflection of the strength of
the cf-talk community's cohesiveness, knowledge and spirit (and
maybe our masochism too). Definitve references need to be strict
in order to have value and in order to be maintainable.
Maybe some of the above will be helpful as you do this thing.
> Now, as for the CFDJ list, my gripes against them and especially their
> marketing can go on for an hour and are definitely off topic.
>
Funny how comp mags come and go and tend to get overweight with
advertising and style as opposed to content ;>
Pan
p.s. If the contents of this new thing becomes extensive and comprehensive
enough, then it strikes me as something I just might be willing to pay some
subscription price to access -- ??? --
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