Re: [NTLK] Special treatment for newbies

From: Victor Rehorst (victor_at_newtontalk.net)
Date: Wed Mar 26 2003 - 07:07:41 PST


Quoting "Eric L. Strobel" <fyzycyst_at_comcast.net>:

> And there's another point to make. A relatively constant flux of newbie
> questions allows the most common answers to stay in the most recent
> portion
> of the archive. (Unless the search algorithm takes no account of age...)

MARC's search automatically sorts from newest to oldest.

> And yet another idea to put in the mix here... Often on web-based
> "BBS's",
> a member's name is classified (by color and/or the number of times they've
> posted) in such a way that one can see immediately whether they're new to
> the discussion. If there were a way to tag a new member's message (in
> either the address or the subject) to indicate they're a new member (pick
> a time duration for defining this), then perhaps readers will take this into
> account before banging out a snide remark. And note, I say "new member"
> not "newbie", to account for experienced users who've been lost in the
> wilderness and have only now found their way to civilization.

Hrm, this is almost technically possible. eCartis actually does keep track of
the number of posts and traffic produced by each user (if you want to see
yours, go to www.newtontalk.net, put your subscribed e-mail address in the
status box (the last form) and hit Status). But it doesn't keep track of when
they subscribed, which I thought it did. It could probably be added though...

-- 
Victor Rehorst - victor_at_newtontalk.net - chuma_at_chuma.org
NewtonTalk list administrator - http://www.newtontalk.net
Will the last person to leave the platform please turn off the backlight?
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