Re: [9fans] the futility of #plan9 on irc

[Dan Cross <cross@math.psu.edu>]

On Thu, May 26, 2005 at 07:04:24AM +0300, McLone wrote:
> /msg memoserv help

I have no idea what that does.  Evidently, it sends a help request
message to some sort of `bot' that can serve memos (that much is
obvious); perhaps you're implying that you can use this as a way to
implement a FAQ listing.  Regardless, I don't see how it addresses my
point:  In the IRC model, if you get bad data, you have significantly
less chance of getting a correction if you don't stick around and
monitor future traffic to pick it out.  If someone who doesn't know the
answer isn't monitoring, you have no chance of getting a correction,
unless people sit around and read IRC logs and go back and post
corrections to questions asked in the past and unrelated to the current
topic(s) of discussion in the channel (that's another thing about IRC:
you don't get threading in the robust way you do with a mailing list or
even, God Forbid, USENET Newsgroups).

And then you're back to waiting around until someone who knows what
they're talking about sees the request, which is the same situation you
have with 9fans.  Or somebody says, ``ask the bot....'' and you spend
time figuring out how, but even then the bot may not be programmed with
the answer to YOUR question.  You might as well read the Wiki instead.

	- Dan C.