[QUIZ] Proposed new rule

[Warren Brown]

The three rules of Ruby Quiz:

1. Please do not post any solutions or spoiler
discussion for this quiz until 48 hours have passed
from the time on this message.

2. Support Ruby Quiz by submitting ideas as often
as you can:

http://www.rubyquiz.com/

3. Enjoy!

I'd like to propose a new rule (1.5?):

Please flag all submissions and discussions of quizzes by starting the
subject with the string "[QUIZ]".

I really enjoy following the discussions of the different quizzes
even though I rarely have time to do them anymore. But in a 100 to 200
message per day mailing list, it is easy to miss a submission or a
discussion when the subject line doesn't indicate that it is
quiz-related. Apparently I am not the only person having this problem,
as illustrated by one of the RRobots submissions being missed last week.

This doesn't seem like it would be a particularly burdensome rule,
and it would make things a lot easier to follow.

If we want to get really bold, the rule could also ask people
submitting solutions to start the subject with "[QUIZ][SOLUTION]" )

Thoughts?

- Warren Brown

 

[James Edward Gray II]

The three rules of Ruby Quiz:

1. Please do not post any solutions or spoiler
discussion for this quiz until 48 hours have passed
from the time on this message.

2. Support Ruby Quiz by submitting ideas as often
as you can:

http://www.rubyquiz.com/

3. Enjoy!

I'd like to propose a new rule (1.5?):

Please flag all submissions and discussions of quizzes by starting the
subject with the string "[QUIZ]".

I'm fine with "recommending" this as long as everyone realizes that's
all it will be.

If we want to get really bold, the rule could also ask people
submitting solutions to start the subject with "[QUIZ][SOLUTION]" )

Yuck.

[SOLUTION] implies [QUIZ], I think, so we can drop the repatition.
Of course, now what you are suppose to put in the subject is getting
more complicated, which probably decreases the chance that it will
happen. That might be a reason to stick with just [QUIZ]. Opinions?

If the traffic is bothering people, we could also consider moving
Ruby Quiz to it's own mailing list. Do speak up, if we're bugging
you...

James Edward Gray II

 

[Craig Demyanovich]

I like this proposal, and I like implementing it as a "recommendation."

Regards,
Craig

 

[Justin Bishop]

I agree. using [SOLUTION] by itself makes sense.

I like the idea of extending this concept further. Is it already a
"recommendation" that new software announcements (or updates) have
[ANN] in their subject line?

How about [QUESTION] for people looking for programming help, as well? ;o)

-Justin

 

[Stephen Waits]

If the traffic is bothering people, we could also consider moving Ruby
Quiz to it's own mailing list. Do speak up, if we're bugging you...

It's already threaded quite nicely. I can recall one instance, in Quiz
60, where someone posted out of thread, and that was for a new solution.

I don't mind the [QUIZ] as a "recommendation", but let's also recommend
readers be threaded. Regardless, [QUIZ] makes obvious good sense.

IMO, the quiz certainly does not need its own list.

--Steve

 

[Ross Bamford]

If the traffic is bothering people, we could also consider moving Ruby
Quiz to it's own mailing list. Do speak up, if we're bugging you...

I still read via the newsgroup, and I'd be sad to see the Quiz go
elsewhere. I've not been confident enough to have a go yet but I enjoy
trying them out, and learning from the solutions and discussion I see.

 

[Ezra Zygmuntowicz]

I still read via the newsgroup, and I'd be sad to see the Quiz go
elsewhere. I've not been confident enough to have a go yet but I
enjoy trying them out, and learning from the solutions and
discussion I see.

+1

Please don't take the quiz to its own list James! I look forward to
reading the solutions and writeups very much and would consider ruby-
talk to be the perfect place for the quiz.

-Ezra

 

[Chad Perrin]

[SOLUTION] implies [QUIZ], I think, so we can drop the repatition.
Of course, now what you are suppose to put in the subject is getting
more complicated, which probably decreases the chance that it will
happen. That might be a reason to stick with just [QUIZ]. Opinions?

I think prefacing subject lines with [QUIZ] makes good sense, and it can
be encouraged by having a header or footer in new quiz threads that
makes that convention known to readers. Confusing the issue by asking
people to use two different subject preface terms will probably just
lead to more people accidentally ignoring the convention, however, and I
think needlessly complicates the situation, so I'd advocate sticking
with [QUIZ] for all of it.

It has been suggested that other preface terms be used for other traffic
here. I don't see this as being a particularly likely convention to
actually help anything, since it won't be specifically prompted in
threads that are started by someone not in a position to necessarily
know about these conventions. For instance, someone new to the list
might not notice that he or she is supposed to start question thread
subjects with [QUESTION] (to say nothing of the fact that's quite a bit
of extra typing), and a convention like that is worse than no such
convention when it's only adhered to haphazardly, in my opinion.

If the traffic is bothering people, we could also consider moving
Ruby Quiz to it's own mailing list. Do speak up, if we're bugging
you...

I'd prefer to keep it on ruby-talk, personally. I don't really
participate, so I wouldn't pick up the new list, but I like to see what
quizzes come up, and I like to think about the problem domain when I see
it. I guess what I'm saying is that it's better for the lazy readers
like myself to have it on ruby-talk rather than making it separate.

 

[J. Ryan Sobol]

Why does it have to be a rule at all? Seems like the only one who
posts the quiz is J.E.G. 2 and everyone just replies to that post.
Can't it just be a suggestion to him alone?

~ ryan ~

 

[James Edward Gray II]

Why does it have to be a rule at all? Seems like the only one who
posts the quiz is J.E.G. 2 and everyone just replies to that post.
Can't it just be a suggestion to him alone?

This is how I've been operating, not wanting to get too heavy handed
with the rules. It works more often than it does, I think. There's
still times when it doesn't. I'm not sure if adding a rule will fix
that or not.

Seems that the quiz can stay here a bit longer. (At least that's
what I'm hearing.) I'm grateful you all are so tolerant of our
playing around.

Let me here a few more opinions on the [QUIZ] rule, and I'll add it
if that seems a popular request...

James Edward Gray II

 

[Stephen Waits]

Let me here a few more opinions on the [QUIZ] rule, and I'll add it
if that seems a popular request...

Personally don't care. More importantly is that people reply to the
original thread. Keeping it under one (or two, ...) thread(s) is
more than adequate.

So, I guess I'm a +0

--Steve

 

[Robert Retzbach]

Let me here a few more opinions on the [QUIZ] rule, and I'll add it
if that seems a popular request...

Personally don't care. More importantly is that people reply to the
original thread. Keeping it under one (or two, ...) thread(s) is
more than adequate.

So, I guess I'm a +0

--Steve

Hello,
Don't make a new rule for that.

I mean the quiz master or James Edward Gray II (may I abbr you in my
next messages?) start a thread here for people to reply on that. It has
to be common sense to use the given structures.
I personally filter all mails with [QUIZ] in a folder and view them
threaded, ordered by subject. This just works fine.
Besides [QUIZ], there is only [ANN] and [RAILS] I think.
I would like to have more tags, but that means all people have to use
them too and that won't happen.

Just imagin a list where all ppl use a set of maybe 20 tags like
[REGEXP], [TOOLKIT], [HTTPD] and so on :>
That would be so nice, but never happening.

-
With kind regards from Germany.

 

[Kero]

If the traffic is bothering people, we could also consider moving Ruby
Quiz to it's own mailing list. Do speak up, if we're bugging you...

It's already threaded quite nicely. I can recall one instance, in Quiz
60, where someone posted out of thread, and that was for a new solution.

I don't mind the [QUIZ] as a "recommendation", but let's also recommend
readers be threaded. Regardless, [QUIZ] makes obvious good sense.

IMO, the quiz certainly does not need its own list.

Full ack to all points, Stephen.

 

[Joel VanderWerf]

While we are at it, let me propose:
[ALIOTH-SHOOTOUT], [I-REALLY-WANT-TO-THE-RAILS-LIST], [SOAP],
[SYMBOL], [SYNTAX-TWEAKS], [TROLL], [WEB].

Thank you.

How about [META] for discussions about the list itself?

 

[Bill Kelly]

While we are at it, let me propose:
[ALIOTH-SHOOTOUT], [I-REALLY-WANT-TO-THE-RAILS-LIST], [SOAP],
[SYMBOL], [SYNTAX-TWEAKS], [TROLL], [WEB].

Thank you.

How about [META] for discussions about the list itself?

Would discussions about the [META] tag itself qualify as
[META][META] ?


SCNR,

Bill

 

[Hal Fulton]

Just imagin a list where all ppl use a set of maybe 20 tags like
[REGEXP], [TOOLKIT], [HTTPD] and so on :>
That would be so nice, but never happening.

While we are at it, let me propose:
[ALIOTH-SHOOTOUT], [I-REALLY-WANT-TO-THE-RAILS-LIST], [SOAP],
[SYMBOL], [SYNTAX-TWEAKS], [TROLL], [WEB].

There are many others, such as [PYTHON], [I-AM-CLUELESS],
[WHY-NO-AUTOINCREMENT], [WHINE], [FLAME], and of course
[LETS-TOTALLY-CHANGE-EVERYTHING-ABOUT-RUBY].


Hal

 

[James Edward Gray II]

It's already threaded quite nicely. I can recall one instance, in
Quiz 60, where someone posted out of thread, and that was for a new
solution.

I just finished a hunt back through the last several quizzes and they
do seem to be threaded quite well. So good in fact, that I doubt a
new rule is going to change anything.

Warren are you using a threading MUA?

James Edward Gray II

 

[Chad Perrin]

While we are at it, let me propose:
[ALIOTH-SHOOTOUT], [I-REALLY-WANT-TO-THE-RAILS-LIST], [SOAP],
[SYMBOL], [SYNTAX-TWEAKS], [TROLL], [WEB].

Thank you.

How about [META] for discussions about the list itself?

Would discussions about the [META] tag itself qualify as
[META][META] ?

Uh-oh. What do we do if we're talking about metaprogramming?

 

[Lloyd Zusman]

I agree. using [SOLUTION] by itself makes sense.

I like the idea of extending this concept further. Is it already a
"recommendation" that new software announcements (or updates) have
[ANN] in their subject line?

How about [QUESTION] for people looking for programming help, as well? ;o)

... and then we can have [ANSWER] for the responses, not to mention
other things like [SUGGESTION], [RANT], [LANGUAGE-WAR], etc. And since
[OT] is already in use, for the sake of parity, we should also have
[ON-TOPIC].

 

[Justin Bishop]

We already have a few established tags which people DO use and nobody
seems to be averse towards. [ANN], [RAILS], and [QUIZ]. so it seems
like the only argument is over exactly how many there should be...not
whether we should have them at all. so i don't see why a suggestion to
add _2_ more should be mocked as the equivalent of saying we make a
specific tag for everything under the sun....we have 3 already. i
suggested we have a whopping 5! watch out--i'm crrrrrrazy!

i respect the logical arguments to stick with just the 3 and that's
fine but that's no reason to act like one or two more is completely
outlandish.

I agree. using [SOLUTION] by itself makes sense.

I like the idea of extending this concept further. Is it already a
"recommendation" that new software announcements (or updates) have
[ANN] in their subject line?

How about [QUESTION] for people looking for programming help, as well? =

;o)

... and then we can have [ANSWER] for the responses, not to mention
other things like [SUGGESTION], [RANT], [LANGUAGE-WAR], etc. And since
[OT] is already in use, for the sake of parity, we should also have
[ON-TOPIC].