Re: LYNX-DEV mailto:address@hidden

[Al Gilman]

  From: address@hidden (Philip Webb)
  
  it seems like  2 or 3 times a week  we get empty messages of this type.
  is there something in Lynx documentation which needs tightening up?
  some people seem to be hitting the wrong key or sending for help
  without realising what they need to do.
  
  we are getting beginners' messages which are clear & need simple answers,
  which seems to me perfectly ok.  i try to do my bit with the easy ones
  to provide a brief answer if no-one else gets to them.  as i've argued
  in the past, lynx-dev needs to be a lot more than just writing code.
  
  but eliminating empty messages to the list would help everyone.

[Floodgate warning]
  
Creating a short list of people doing first-line support is 
more likely to be effective than any tweaks we could do for
the user-coaching embedded in the product.

I have an archive of such junk message, if you want to review
them and build statistics on how many come from what command,
etc.

While some of these could conceivably be reduced by making the ^G
cancel opportunity more prominent <FONT +4> ;-> as the
c)omment-to-owner function is entered, I suspect that a
significant fraction of the junk messages are from people who are
facinated to see what happens next and are in no way aware that
what happens next is that copies go to several hundred in-boxes
of busy people.

Many things that we could do to reduce the junk posts would also
reduce the availability of help with Lynx.  We want to be
agressive with propaganda so that those to whom we want to offer
help know where to ask.  About the only change that would reduce
the help traffic on lynx-dev without impairing the availability
of help with Lynx is to set up a real lynx-help list which serves
as first-line support.  Second-line questions referred by
the lynx-help staff (=subscribers) and people who got the list
name from the INSTALLATION guide (who should go direct to the
-dev list) would still go to lynx-dev in the first instance.

Personally, I don't find the present level that much of a bother.
On the other hand, I recall Larry Virden asked a while ago if
anyhting could be done to introduce more isolation between the
help and development conversations.  More can be done, but we
have to be careful how we do it or it won't work.

The fact that if anything, it's increasing, can be looked on as
good news about libraries and freenets getting around to
installing versions of Lynx that know about lynx.browser.org.

Actually, let me offer one other incremental step:  If you can
come up with some good coaching/warning language I will install
a buffer page containing that advice between the links on the
home page and the actual mailto: URL.

The basic plot is  "the following information will help us
help you: ... In any case, if you've tried to find/follow the
instructions and you are stumped, do write."

There is a whole diagnostic guide to be written, if anybody has
pedagogical urges.  Subir's "Found a bug?" is just the beginning.

--
Al Gilman
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