65451 - advertise a newsgroup FAQ in postings to its group

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(mozilla.org Graveyard :: Server Operations, task)

Description

[Andreas Franke (gone)]

In the future, some mozilla newsgroups may have FAQs (see bug 65447). Since some
people, me included, found the newsgroups simply by looking around on
news.mozilla.org (instead of reading http://www.mozilla.org/community.html),
this will probably happen in the future, too.

If the community page is the only place where a links to the newsgroups FAQs can
be found, some first-time posters won't know about it and continue to post the
same questions over and over again.

This may be a serious problem for "catchy" newsgroups like mozilla.general. For
these newsgroups, it makes sense to advertise the FAQ (assuming one exists) on
the newsgroup itself. This could be done by

a) frequent postings (e.g. daily or weekly) that advertise the FAQ (and maybe
summarize the changes made to it since the last notification, but this would
probably be hard to automate). In this case the title should NOT be the same for
every post to make sure it is visible as a recent post even in a "threaded" view
in 4.x

or 

b) adding a link to the FAQ at the end of every post, like "Sent through GMX
FreeMail - http://www.gmx.net" or similar signatures that are appended by some
email services. If the message body of the post already contains the URL of the
FAQ, then the appendix shouldn't be added.

For different newsgroups, different solutions may be the best. I suggest to
start with b) for mozilla.general.

Comment 1

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Solution b), which I favour, should be possible after the newsgroup server move 
and renaming. Marking this bug dependent on that one.

Gerv

Comment 2

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

I like none of the suggestions. I don't like software that alters my msgs (be it
subject or sig in the body). I don't think, any of the suggestions would help.
How often did I post "OFFTOPIC" (in the subject) to .mail-news? I don't know,
but the postings of Netscape users don't stop. (.mail-news is probably the most
"catchy" group of the mozilla ones.)

I like the requirement to read the FAQ before being able to post. If a reader
posts for the first time, the msg doesn't get through until he answers to the
software with a keyword (similar to the mailing-list subscription confirmation).
The keyword (and its existance) is mentioned only in the FAQ. Once the poster
sent the keyword, that From address is free to post (and the first post is
automatically posted). It could be implemented via a moderated newsgroup, just
that the moderator is software.

Who could implement it? (I guess, Netscape IT wouldn't.)

Comment 3

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Of course, the first post should bounce with a hint to the FAQ URL.

Comment 4

[Andreas Franke (gone)]

Ben, that's bug 65456.

Comment 5

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

So, why do we have this bug, then?

Comment 6

[Andreas Franke (gone)]

Some people think the method outlined in bug 65456 is very restrictive and
should be avoided if possible. Therefore this bug suggests alternative methods
that are could be applied to more groups.

Comment 7

[Risto Kotalampi]

Moving to nobody until we have better picture of where we'll be going with 
mozilla.org support by IC.

Comment 8

[Daniel Wang]

No point for this bug.

1) The person who maintains the FAQ will post the FAQ regularly.
If the person becomes to busy to maintain the FAQ, the FAQ will
become outdated and there would be no point posting it anyway

2) Don't change postings please.

Comment 9

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

agreed, see comment 2

Comment 10

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

(actually wontfix)