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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, David Eaton writes:
> And of course that's precisely why I'm leery of the system. I can see the
> logic behind it, but it runs the risk of excluding people who misinterpret
> the system. It's been a long-standing problem where people have been
> confused about how to sign up for posting privilages, and similarly for
> membership. People tend to think (as would I initially) that membership ==
> posting privilages.
Rest easy, David, we're going to be fixing this once and for all soon. :-)
> Really? I'd tend to think that you'd want to increase your customer base as
> much as possible. I mean, sure it allows people to throw in phony bids and
> whatnot, but that can be dealt with; particularly since Auczilla was a
> 'single-auction-at-a-time' type deal. Top-most bidder didn't reply after X
> days? Go to the next highest bidder. For some place like Ebay, that's more
> touchy-- since they use proxy bidding, and they've got crazy amounts of
> users and auctions, requiring LOADS more man-hours be spent on issues of
> this nature.
AucZILLA had proxy bidding too. And the e-mail list wasn't a
single-auction-at-a-time deal; you stayed on the list, with all your
settings preserved from auction to auction, until you asked to be removed.
Typically there were about 1000 list subscribers and 250 active bidders.
> The fact that Lugnet doesn't publicize posting • privilage documentation a bit
> more proactively has always puzzled me.
If you're already signed up, you don't ever see it (unless you click to it
manually from the News homepage).
But if you're not already signed up, it's quite publicized: If you post a
message to the NNTP server without first being signed up, it directs you to
the news-posting setup page. If you click the 'New' or 'Reply' icon without
beign signed up, it automatically walks you through it.
Once you've done it, it (the documentation, the procedure) conveniently
doesn't get in your way any more.
Of course, it could still stand to be a lot clearer. Back in 1998, the
website was a lot smaller. As it grew we failed to keep the most important
documentation easy to find.
> The only reason I could possibly
> imagine is that it was difficult by design.
Nooope, nope, nope.
> I mean, membership is publicized
> on the front page, and there's even a little "Info" link which would be a
> *PERFECT* place to describe the difference between posting setup and
> membership.
Currently there's a link on the member area that says, "Do I have to be a
member to use LUGNET?" where some of this is explained. But rest easy,
we're revamping the whole member thing.
Last month we began moving resources and links to members.lugnet.com and
this months we'll be making sign-up (all types) be simple and direct and clear.
> Or maybe have it under some other link on the homepage. It's
> also not in Cary Clark's Lugnet FAQ (which might be another place newbie's
> might look), though that's no fault of Lugnet's. But after a bit of looking,
> you *can* find it as a link under the news top page, which is a little
> harder to notice, but logically makes sense, I spose.
The news posting setup came first (August-September 1998) and the current
membership stuff came second (November 1999). The docs are definitely in
need of cleanup.
> I think I personally found the posting setup form for the first time by
> attempting to respond to a thread, which in turn told me I had to sign up
> for posting privilages...
Yup! Exactly as intended. Ideally you would know about signing up first
(and we'll definitely make this easier) but if for some reason you didn't
happen to know that -- probably a common occurrence, since newbies stumble
into/onto LUGNET in all sorts of ways -- then the next best thing is you
walk you through the signup and help you return to where you wanted to post.
Fair enough?
--Todd
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: A Change
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| (...) And of course that's precisely why I'm leery of the system. I can see the logic behind it, but it runs the risk of excluding people who misinterpret the system. It's been a long-standing problem where people have been confused about how to (...) (21 years ago, 9-May-03, to lugnet.admin.suggestions, lugnet.admin.nntp)
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