Re: Reducing Noise [was Re: Animated Gifs - MouseOver conflicts}

In message <9604211928.ZM28001@masschaos.de.convex.com>, "Ray Davis" writes:
>
>On Apr 19, 18:46, Harold A. Driscoll wrote:
>> Collaboration is a good thing. How about proposing an ehnanced version of
>> his quote, which we can then send to folks?  Just a constructive suggestion.
>
>Excellent suggestion!
>
>Sometime during the last year we had the same discussion on the
>inet-access list.  We used to get dozens of "how do I become an
>ISP" and "what is a router" questions a week, which often started
>a further discussion about what was appropriate for the list.  We
>now have a weekly "Welcome to inet-access" posting which states
>the purpose, gives examples of appropriate and inappropriate
>subjects and goes on to list a number of more appropriate mailing
>lists, web sites, etc, for related subjects.  Since then the noise
>level is almost down to zero.
>
>I'm more than willing to put together such a thing here and post
>it once per week.

Please do put it together. I can arrange to have it posted periodically
from here, I think. This should have been done long ago. Sorry.

Here's a canned response that I use a lot that has some grist for
the mill (I notice that some of the pointers are already out of
date, but...):


Please forgive the automated response, but the staff members of the
World-Wide Web consortium get a lot of e-mail, and we cannot afford to
spend time to personally respond to messages not relating to the tasks
we are working on.

Much of the mail we receive is questions about how the web works, and
how particular pieces of web technology work. These technologies are
generally well documented, and answering the questions is a simple
matter of referring the asker to the appropriate documentation.

As much as we enjoy helping folks out, it's really not the most
cost-effective use of our time. Wouldn't you rather that we were off
building a better web?

Unless you believe that the staff of the W3 consortium are the only
folks who can help you, please consult the following documents, or
try some of the public disucssion forums:

The World-Wide Web FAQ, a list of frequently asked questions about
the web, with answers, is available at:

	http://sunsite.unc.edu/boutell/faq/www_faq.html

If you are unable to obtain the document from that address, please
contact the maintiner: Thomas Boutell <boutell@netcom.com>.

Another way to find lots of valuable information is to start with
one of the web search services. Try any of these:

	InfoSeek
	http://www.infoseek.com/Home

	Yahoo
	http://www.yahoo.com/

	Lycos
	http://lycos.cs.cmu.edu/

For more technical information, try the section of the virtual library
on web development, or Verity's excellent search service on web
technical topics:

	Web Developer's Virtual Library: WWW Development
	http://WWW.Stars.com/Vlib/


	Verity Internet Virtual Library
	http://www.verity.com/library.html


If you can't find what you're after in any of these places, there's
still a good chance that lots of folks have the same question you
have, and lots of other folks know the answer. You can find these
folks on USENET:

Here's some info from the WWW FAQ:

What newsgroups discuss the Web?

You can find information about World Wide Web topics in fifteen distinct
newsgroups. They are subdivided for good reasons; use the ONE newsgroup
most relevant to your topic, please: 

     Authoring-Related Groups 
     comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of the development of Common
          Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts as they relate to Web page
          authoring. Possible subjects include discussion how to handle the
          results of forms, how to generate images on the fly, and how to
          put together other interactive Web offerings. 
     comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of HyperText Markup
          Language (HTML) as it relates to web page authoring. Possible
          subjects include HTML editors, formatting tricks, and current
          and proposed HTML standards. 
     comp.infosystems.www.authoring.images 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of the creation and editing of
          images as they relate to web page authoring. Possible subjects
          include how best to leverage the image-display capabilities of the
          web and common questions and solutions for putting up
          imagemaps. 
     comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc 
          This newsgroup covers miscellaneous World-Wide Web
          authoring issues not covered by the other c.i.w.authoring.*
          groups. Possible subjects include the use of audio and video, etc. 
     Browser software -- related groups 
     comp.infosystems.www.browsers.mac 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of World-Wide Web browsers
          for the Macintosh platform. Possible subjects include
          configuration questions/solutions, external viewers (helper
          applications), and bug reports. 
     comp.infosystems.www.browsers.ms-windows 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of World-Wide Web browsers
          for the MS Windows and NT platforms. Possible subjects include
          configuration questions/solutions, external viewers (helper
          applications), and bug reports. 
     comp.infosystems.www.browsers.x 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of World-Wide Web browsers
          for the X-Window system. Possible subjects include
          configuration questions/solutions, external viewers (helper
          applications), and bug reports. 
     comp.infosystems.www.browsers.misc 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of World-Wide Web browsers
          for all other platforms. Possible subjects include configuration
          questions/solutions, external viewers (helper applications), and
          bug reports. Platforms included are Amiga, DOS (*not*
          Windows), VMS, and Unix text-mode. 
     Web Server -- related groups 
     comp.infosystems.www.servers.mac 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of World-Wide Web servers
          for the Macintosh (MacOS) platform. Possible subjects include
          configuration questions/solutions, security issues, directory
          structure, and bug reports. 
     comp.infosystems.www.servers.ms-windows 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of World-Wide Web servers
          for the MS Windows and NT platforms. Possible subjects include
          configuration questions/solutions, security issues, directory
          structure, and bug reports. 
     comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of World-Wide Web servers
          for Unix platforms. Possible subjects include configuration
          questions/solutions, security issues, directory structure, and bug
          reports. 
     comp.infosystems.www.servers.misc 
          This newsgroup covers discussion of World-Wide Web servers
          for other platforms, such as Amiga, VMS, and others. Possible
          subjects include configuration questions/solutions, security issues,
          directory structure, and bug reports. 
     Other Discussion 
     comp.infosystems.www.advocacy 
          This newsgroup is for comments, arguments, debates, and
          discussions about which Web browsers, servers, external viewer
          programs, and other software is better or worse than any other.
          Posts should not be crossposted to this group and to any other
          Web group. However, this group is a good place to direct
          follow-ups if a thread in another Web group begins to take on a
          "this program is better than that one" flavor. Possible subjects
          include: "The web is better than print"; "Netscape is better than
          anything else"; "CERN httpd kicks butt"; etc. 
     comp.infosystems.www.misc 
          comp.infosystems.www.misc (unmoderated) provides a forum for
          general discussion of WWW (World Wide Web)- related topics
          that are NOT covered by the other newsgroups in the hierarchy.
          This will likely include discussions of the Web's future,
          politicking regarding changes in the structure and protocols of the
          web that affect both clients and servers, et cetera. 
     Announcements 
     comp.infosystems.www.announce 
          A newsgroup in which new web-related resources can be
          announced. READ THE GROUP FIRST to find the posting
          guidelines. 

If you think the W3C is the place to get the info you're after, you
should definitely browse around our web site. We try to keep
everything we know in there somewhere:

	http://www.w3.org/

If you've searched high and low, and you just can't find it, but
you're sure it's in there somewhere, send email to <webmaster@w3.org>,
and we'll try to get to the bottom of it.

And finally, if this is a novel issue, that is, something that
you believe noone else can help you with, or a critical issue,
that is, something terrible will happen if we don't help you,
send your mail again with the word NOVEL: or CRITICAL: in the
subject. We'll be sure to answer personally in that case.

	-- the World Wide Web Consortium Staff

Received on Friday, 26 April 1996 00:40:23 UTC