From: "Fr.Inire" <inire@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) TBOTNS FAQ
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 21:21:18 



--- Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe@apocalypse.org> wrote:

> 
> What people don't seem to realise, and I keep trying
> to explain, is that it
> is possible to have *both* a list of hints for
> reading Wolfe, and a list of
> suggested answers that do not spoil the fun of
> neophytes, simply by
> encrypting the answers.

    For some reason this in practice may be really
cool, but the I-know-more-than-you thing seems to be
embedded in the idea of encryption. perhaps the
practice will be different. One can hope!

 Alternatively, one could
> have one document for
> questions and hints, and publish the suggested
> answers in another document
> altogether -- a low-tech, even no-tech way of
> assuring that people who want
> to see the answers can, and people who don't want to
> don't have to.

    I can't speak for Christy, but for myself the
argument is not whether to answer or hint (though
would we call the one version FAH for Frequently
Answered Hints? ;->). It _is_ about making the info
accessible, in whatever form it is portrayed, to
everyone.

> 
> There's no reason to tailor the FAQ only to novices.
> Some of us want
> intelligent discussion of substance to arise from
> this, not just vague
> I-know-more-than-you-do hinting. Those who insist
> that no answers be
> published *anywhere* are declaring, "Someone is
> having some fun somewhere,
> and this must not be." (That's what the Puritan
> Brother said when he
> learned there was dancing in Ceylon.)
No Debate there! It should not be dumbed down, but at
the same time it need not all be written  as if the
reader is asumed to have read and memorized all of the
various books and events therein. In some FAQs this is
self regulating; I look for the simple question and
find it, satisfied with the info. The advanced
questions dazzle me, and some part may be recalled for
later, and just having them there makes it accessible.

=====
Jeff "My dice hate me!" Miller
"The idea of verifying facts about the world through controlled repetition seems alien to just about everyone with the _possible_ exception of Fr Inire, and he's a bug-eyed space monster
 . . ."-Jim Henley

Heavy Gear Swap @ http://freecenter.digiweb.com/games/severian/meet.html
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