🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov2.122422.11183@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> dmarble@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Duane F Marble) writes:
>
>I think there has been enough on this topic and we should return to
>the subject matter of comp.infosystems.

I have been reading this thread with great interest, and I believe that
it IS in the subject matter of comp.infosystems.  I've seen a number of
people discuss the difference between posting a question to a newsgroup
and querying a database.  Each is a means of retrieving information, but
the newsgroup may have information that is more comprehensive (it draws
on all the experience of its members, not just some narrowly defined
subset), and in some cases the answer may be of higher quality (as some
have argued that only a practitioner could give you "today's" definition
of "firmware").

Whether such a query would constitute cheating on a take-home exam is
somewhat less germane, but we can thank it for bringing out the rest of
the discussion.

I wonder if any data storage and retrieval methods like WAIS and
Gopher could substitute for the query to a newsgroup.  Or do we want
to have both methods?  What are the advantages and pitfalls of the
newsgroup approach?  For example, do we really want to see everyone's
questions all the time?  When and what should one post?  Should
replies be by e-mail, and if so, wouldn't that eliminate the
possibility of another expert posting a correction or addition to a
reply?  Should the question go to everyone at once or only to a few
people in order to cut down on the number of questions everyone sees?

Oh yes, and how do we know when we answer a question that we're not
giving unauthorized help on an exam (or do we need to be concerned
with this any more than if someone happened to knock on our office
door with the same question)?

-- David Karr (karr@cs.cornell.edu)