Ron Fehd stated:

Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 11:53:55 -0400 From: "Fehd, Ronald J. (PHPPO)" <rjf2@CDC.GOV> Subject: Re: Newsgroups & Usergroups need for SAS-L FAQ

an item that has been floated before the krewe before is to add a line to _all_ -- which is probably why it hasn't been implemented -- posts which points to ... somewhere

http://www.listserv.uga.edu/archives/sas-l.html

Tim Berryhill and more recently Sally Muller have occasionally submitted a ListServ FAQ: http://www.listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0005B&L=sas-l&P=R2869

I propose that we add a one-liner to -each- post that points to the SAS-L FAQs which page will have: * ListServ FAQ * archive search * http://support.sas.com/

what more could an Enquiring Mind(tm) ask for?

Ron Fehd the macro maven CDC Atlanta GA USA RJF2@cdc.gov

------------------------------ Hi all, just wanted to add my 2 cents.

Two issues:

To avoid hundreds (or sometimes it just seems like hundreds) of SAS-L posts a day, I get mine in digest form. That limits the number of SAS-L e-mails per day to a reasonably small number, on the order of 5 to 9. They come frequently enough that they can be pretty current, but contained enough so that they don't overrun my e-mail. My only complaint is that I have to scan down the digestlist, I can't jump from the post heading to the post. Still, if you don't want to go the newsgroups route, check out the digest form.

Second, I like the idea of a faq listed at the end of every post as Ron suggested. If you check out Statalist (which I also take in digest form), at the end of every post you will see:

* For searches and help try: * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/

This doesn't lengthen posts too much, and in fact I often use it as a marker if I am scanning a post in the digest I'm not interested in to let me know when that one is finished and the next one comes up.

While it is true there are people who will not check reference materials before asking a question, some people don't know where to look to ask. If there were links to faqs in SAS-L, some of the questioners might try them. We could also point to the faqs the 9th time in 2 days someone asked how to sign off the list, or in answer to some of the other questions that come up frequently.

Merlin

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