On Fri, 6 May 1994 02:03:43 -0400 you said:
>On Thu, 5 May 1994, Nathan Brindle wrote:
>
>> And I have to say, I'm tired of hearing about "neophytes on the net."
>
>And yet there should be exceptions to many rules. Nathan, you know the
>the community of patients that I serve. As list-owner, I go out of my way
>to bring along the network neophytes on my lists so that they'll get and
>use the important, and sometimes vital, services that are available to
>them.
>
>I will guess that perhaps 95% (a random figure) of Listserv users should
>be presumed to have a certain level of net sophistication, but I hope that
>there will be some place for the perhaps ~5% of net users who are still truly
>neophyte, and that Listserv utilities will continue to be available (and
>developed) for those list-owners who want, or feel, that they need to
>serve those who are new to the nets.
This posting caught my eye because I run a Listserv list that was created
expressly to welcome (i.e., teach) neophyte BITnet and Internet users about
this new world of electronic communication. If you know of anyone who is
confused about this BITnet and/or Internet services, not just Listserv, ask
them to subscribe to Help-Net. Its at VM.TEMPLE.EDU and TEMPLEVM. Help-Net
is also available via Usenet as bit.listserv.help-net. Clearly, the novice
person needs to know enough to read Help-Net postings, but that level of
knowledge is very basic. Help-Net is somewhere between 4 and 5 years old and
it has around 1400 subscribers usually. I have received very positive
feedback from many people about how much they learned about BITnet and
Internet services through other Help-Net subscribers.
Help-Net is also a store house of documents which describe various services
that are available on both BITnet and the Internet. So of this stuff
includes a network related FAQ file, stuff about E-mail, Listserv info,
network etiquette, how to find E-mail addresses, and so on. These are all
written at very basic levels of knowledge from a technical standpoint. This
documentation is available three ways. Via the traditional Listserv archive
method plus Gopher and anonymous ftp (which is down at the moment).
Many novice Internet and BITnet users over the years have increased their
knowledge of various network services considerably thanks to the kind and
generous help that's provided by more sophisticated Help-Net subscribers. If
you want more information about Help-Net, please let me know.
I am sorry blatantly plugging Help-Net here. I do, however, feel that
Help-Net provides a free service that many novice network users find very
helpful once they find out about it.
Stan Horwitz Internet: [log in to unmask] Bitnet: STAN@TEMPLEVM
Temple University -- Senior Consultant (My views are all mine!)
Manager of the Help-Net and Suggest lists and Listserv Postmaster.
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