🚀 go-pugleaf

American University has been the source of several student contributions
to comp.groupware recently. This is apparently a result of a teacher
assigning students participation in a newsgroup as one possible way of
fulfilling class requirements. 

I have exchanged email with the teacher, who agreed that this was not
appropriate, especially considering that he did not ensure that students
had read the "Introduction to comp.groupware" before posting. Other
contributors in the group have responded to these students' articles by
giving information and commenting that questions were not adequately
prepared. These reactions have not stopped these articles. I suggest
that no further follow-ups be posted in response to these types of
articles.

I have added a section to the "Introduction to comp.groupware" for
teachers in the hope that we can avoid another rash of inappropriate
articles. However, I think we need another periodic post to ensure that
students and others who have not prepared adequately are aware of the
standards we are trying to maintain. This would have to be shorter than
the "Introduction to comp.groupware", easy to read (my word processor
indicates that the "Introduction to comp.groupware" requires grade 13
education for comprehension), and a title, maybe "README BEFORE
POSTING", that would make it more likely that it would be read by even
the most inexperienced Netnews users.

I would like someone else to do this, since I have trouble writing at
the appropriate level. The README should primarily ensure that
inappropriate articles are not posted, and then refer readers to the
"Introduction to comp.groupware" for more information. I can arrange for
the actual posting if preferred.

-- 
David S. Stodolsky                Messages: + 45 46 75 77 11 x 24 41
Department of Computer Science                 Tel: + 45 31 95 92 82
Bldg. 20.1, Roskilde University Center        Internet: david@ruc.dk
Post Box 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark        Fax: + 45 46 75 42 01