[NBLUG/talk] Hello

[ME]

Nadina wrote:
> Thank you very much for the welcome!  I have been to the website numerous
> and often have intentions of going to a meeting, but ..  I joined the
> announcement a little while back (at least I think I did - I haven't
> received any messages from it yet).

It is very low volume. The last post was May 12. We also have an archive.
( http://www.nblug.org/pipermail/announce/ ) You can see if you missed
anything.

> I joined here with every intention of asking some questions as I get
> started.  I am fairly confident I can do this, but it's nice to have
> easily
> accessible resource.  And I find sometimes doing web searches isn't always
> successful in answering specific questions (for instance, what exactly is
> molasses and how is it made?).

Courtesy of google:
http://www.mtnlaurel.com/Interviews/molasses.htm

[snip]
> I have been on lists with different expectations about posting - what the
> general rule here when replying - top- or bottom-posting?  I tend to
> top-post, but will obviously alter if that is not what is generally done
> here.

Post how you like and how it makes sense to you. I dont think we have any
posting zealot here to complicate things, and enforcing rules stifles
creative minds.
We *do* have a policy of not being abusive to users in the list. Sure, we
have had arguments on technical things and most are resolved without
anyone getting upset, and the same people who would argue may hang out and
laugh at the next meeting. There has only been one case where "things went
too far" and a user was removed from the list. We now have several list
moderators. Our moderators have not had to "step-in" to resolve problems
for a *long* time (only once AFAIK.) We have tried to agree that people
who are moderators will not moderate any emotional discussion to which
they are a part. (Try to avoid bias and abuse of power.)

Rules seem to come into existence when problems come up. We have been
lucky as we have had only one. :-D

You can see from our talk archives, that people mix posting and reply
styles. http://nblug.org/pipermail/talk/

Common sense helps. The following are *not* rules, but seem to be useful:

When working on a problem, don't comment out too much of previous
 information - this makes it easier for people using search engines
 to index the complete problem and fix for others to gain benefit
 and saves space for member's inboxes.
Avoid mis-quoting, especially on important items (taking things out of
 context) as it can lead to confusion.
When reporting a problem, include lots of useful information. Don't send a
 100kB++ log file, but certainly send the parts of a log file that appears
 close to the time the occurance of a problem.
My own policy: Anything I post from this address is only my opinion while
 anything I post from my "nblug.org" address is an official LUG comment.
 (Like an announcement or something.)