Ed or Phil Greenspun:

A note at the top of the page where you click on "NEW QUESTONS" needs to be added, saying something to the effect that, "For christ sakes, scroll down and find an existing thread either in recent posts on in the subject areas at the bottom of the page, before starting another redundant thread..."

This is getting out of hand with all the newbies and prima donnas posting "new" questions which have been beaten to death, with other threads on the same subject started not more than ONE day preceeding, in many cases.

You might also remind people emphatically that there is a section at the bottom of the page to access existing threads.

The utility of this was great when first started -- kudos to you both, but it is now getting too tedious and laborious -- there are more "new questions" posted in one day now than in two weeks back in October and November.

-- A (A@AisA.com), February 15, 1999

Answers

Okay, I'll add something later today. At the moment, I'm trying to delete obsolete forum participants from the notification system, because their 3-megabyte forum summaries are being bounced back to my email and clogging up my system...

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), February 15, 1999.

A,

I've thought of that, too. Two problems: at some point everything will become repetitive, and it becomes harder to ask an original question. On the other hand, asking the same old questions may bring new insights from new participants.

But people should at least check the past couple of *days* for their topic.

-- Spoticat (incognito@y2k.com), February 15, 1999.

And a search engine too, pretty please?

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), February 15, 1999.

Need a search engine. Oracle one supposed to be "fixed" by March?
What happened to the one soliciting donations?
xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), February 15, 1999.

Heck, if he's going to provide those useful services, I'd even kick in $10 for his trouble. :)

-- Bill (billclo@hotmail.com), February 15, 1999.

Thanks very much, Ed.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 15, 1999.

OK, my $.02 is split. It is impossible to keep up with all the NEW threads here, but I've seen some very interesting comments on a new thread, when just a few days earlier the same topic had few comments at all. The past few days, I've posted a few hot-links if I've noticed a newer thread covering the same topic. Also, it seems like the average life span is only 2-3 days. before it simply gets overrun with new posts, at least on the top level. It's not easy keeping up with this much info, but I'm sure glad it's here!

Another thing slowing me down is the length of some of the posts, esp. news items. No, I'm not saying limit the size of a post, and yes, sometimes it does take alot of words to get a point across. But how many times have you read "The Y2K (year 2000) computer problem is caused by..." Do you think a poster should "edit" some redundant info? <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), February 15, 1999.

The problem I have is keeping track of which threads have ongoing conversations I'm interested in or have participated in. They move down so fast, and often have irrelevant titles, I usually lose track after two days...

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), February 15, 1999.

Yeah, I'd put in $10, $20, whatever for search engine.
Ed, Phil: To make it easy to pay, semi-confidentially, open an e-gold account and post your account number.
http://www.e-gold.com

Note: e-gold is not my business -- I just think it's cool

-- A (A@AisA.com), February 15, 1999.

I'm sick and tired of the crybabies who do nothing but complain and complain and complain over NOTHING!!!!!

-- dhkgoieythgmkjsjolfojnc!!!! (Tiredofcomplainers@getalife.com), February 15, 1999.

Dear dhkgoieythgmkslslolfojnc!!!!: Would a can of SPAM make you feel better? And do you know why I complain and complain and complain? Because I can! Ed: Could we please have a spell check too?

-- Chronic (Chroniccomplainer@chronic.com), February 16, 1999.

I'm in Australia. I want financial compensation because of the distance-induced time lag!

-- Leo (lchampion@ozemail.com.au), February 16, 1999.

Leo, ever thought about moving to the US?

-- movenow (movenow@move.com), February 16, 1999.