[MUD-Dev] META: FAQ and Thread Summaries

[Marian Griffith]

On Tue 02 Dec, coder at ibm.net wrote:

> Writing as list owner:

> This is an idea that has been proposed several times to date, I'm looking
> for comments:

>   1) That the list should have a FAQ and FAQ maintainer.
I am not sure there are enough questions asked but probably this is a
good idea. If it is feasible I see no reason not to do this :)

>   2) That <someone> should produce a summary of each thread once it is
> done for addition to the list achives.
There have been a couple of these already.  I think it is a very good
idea and I will continue to write summaries. The problem is of course
that discussions tend to wander rather wildly.  This makes it hard to
do the actual summarising as significant parts actually belong in an-
other summary.

> Observation:  New members to the list are having an increasingly hard time
> getting up to speed.  Some never make it.  Some never are overwhelmed or
> over-awed and never try.  
> Deduced reasons:  Partly it is as trivial as vocabulary (we have evolved
> our own terminology and connotation frame), partly it is reference frame
> (we all have a fairly decent idea of each other's projects, design goals,
> and base approaches), and partly it is sheer discussion history
> (scenarios, named topics, etc).  

Sounds complicated.

> I'm not interested in launching a "make the list easy for twinks"
> campaign.  I am interested in seeing that we don't become a cliqueish
> closed system without external inputs, propagation, or feedback.  I'm also
> interested in seeing that the (very valuable) ideas and concepts broached
> on this list don't die, buried and lost in the archives amid all the other
> megabytes of verbiage.  Datum: The list averages over 2Megs of traffic
> (not encluding headers) per month.

Considering that I am a kind of twink, by the standards of most of the
others I rather not comment on this. Keeping things readable is one of
the reasons why I think summaries are a good idea.

> Specific questions I have:

>   1) Should we have a FAQ?
Probably :)

>   2) What should be in it?
I wonder what is asked by people. And how often it should be changed.
Keeping track of discussions  like some others have proposed seems to
be a lot of work for little gain.  How to post and when to change the
subject would help I think.

>   3) Who should own it?  Volunteers?
>   4) Should we have thread ownership?
It probably is not practical but at times it would be helpfull. But
then everybody has different ideas of what should be discussed  and
things like controlling threads would probably be counter producti-
ve.   Maybe if everybody would make it more clear what they want to
talk about in their posts things would improve some?

>   5) Should we have an official thread summariser per thread?
This also is kind of impractical :(

>   6) How should the thread summarisier be appointed?  Self-elected? 
> Appointed by list owner?  Appointed by thread participants?  Determined by
> volume of contribution to thread?
>   7) Should any of these participation rules be mandated as part of list
> membership?  Should they instead rely on internal feedbacks/measures? 
> What?

?

> As tagged, this is a meta thread.  Please discuss it only under the above
> subject header.

Maybe somebody starting a new subject  should make it clear what she
wants to discuss.  One or two lines at the start of the post.  Every
other contribution to that discussion  could copy those lines so you
can see at first glance what the post is rougly about.
If somebody wants to go off at a tangent for whatever reason she can
add another of such topic lines to the post so you know it that is a
different subject.

e.g. (to borrow from a recent subject)

[smart monsters]
[Folklore and (hi)stories written inside the mud]

Things like that would make it more easily understandable what a
post was about.  It would also help summarising the discussion I
think. Do you think this would work?

Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey