Frequently asked questions in these groups deserve a monthly posting

[Jon A. Tankersley]

I think that there are a couple of 'solutions' available here.
1)  Modify existing readers to make a 'first-time-use' check like rn does.
    Tell the first time readers about the more common FAQ's and ask them to
    read them.  (Won't work.  People never read signs :-().  Also recommend
    they read the Usenet News intro documents.
2)  Set up an easy set of 'aliases' or commands for the old-timers to email
    to a neophyte +/- flames, their choice.
3)  With the posting, post an update kill file for the old-timers, or if the
    FAQ questions are delimited in some 'specific' fashion, we can craft a
    tool to generate the kill file from the FAQ.

1) could be accomplished by a fairly simple front end shell script.
2) could be done in a shell script also, run from within the reply.
3) would be real nice and would trim the chaff out.  Might require some
   extra smarts though.  /[Rr]ecursive/ && / ls[$ ]/ Kill  would get the
   "How do you do a recursive ls" and leave "recursive panels".
   An established format for the FAQ questions would enable us to modify
   the kill file easily.  Since the FAQ is just text, something like
   "###QUESTION###" delimiting each one would make it real easy to hack
   something together to generalize a kill file.  Or even
   "###QUESTION###keyword keyword keyword.........$ would enable the
   smarter kill request to be formed.

Comments?
-tank-
#include <std/disclaimer.h>		/* nobody knows the trouble I .... */
tank at apctrc.trc.amoco.com    ..!uunet!apctrc!tank