Cream of the Crop 11/Cream of the Crop 11-1.iso/comm/mbtc9601.zip/MBTC-FAQ.TXT

Text File | 1995-12-24 | 10KB | 216 lines

Mark Baum's Tagline Collection FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Last updated 12-24-1995 (c) Mark Baum

Q: Is this supposed to be the FAQ for your Tagline Collection?

      It is supposed to be.  For right now it is quite small...but
what more do you expect from a debut release.  This file will serve
as a general Q&A guide.  When this file gains some more weight, refer
to it first before filling my hard drive up with E-mail.

      Since I can't read anyones' mind, ask me a question concerning
this tagline collection.  If your question is very intriguing and
prompts be to submit a detailed reply, the question and answer will
be placed here.  I will not give the answer via E-mail but the answer
will be contained within this file or posted within the Wildnet
Taglines conference.

Q: What prompted you to release your own Tagline Collection?

      I've been meaning to do this for some time.  Because of time
limitations this project was severely delayed.  What coereced me into
releasing this collection was to prove my stature in providing a
quality outlet for tagline collectors.

      Not to mention that I'm a moderator of a Tagline conference so
I have to prove that I can set an example. {g}

Q: What files comprise the full release of your Tagline Collection?

      DESC.SDI     - Short BBS description of this release.
      FILE_ID.DIZ  - Long BBS description of this release.
      MBTCyymm.LST - Mark Baum's Tagline Collection
                     (where "yy" and "mm" indicates the year and
                      month of release respectively)
      MBTC-FAQ.TXT - The FAQ file your are reading right now.
      OLXTAGS.BAS  - A small BASIC program which extracts the
                     taglines which are 57 or less characters long
                     and creates a TAGLINES.OLX file for use with
                     SLMR or OLX.

Q: I've noticed that there are taglines that are longer than 57
   characters in your Tagline Collection.  How can I use your file
   with SLMR or OLX?

      Included with this tagline collection is a small BASIC program
which goes through a tagline file and extracts taglines which are 57
or less characters long from my Tagline Collection.

      To run this program load a BASIC interpreter (common ones are
BASICA, GWBASIC and QBASIC).  Load "OLXTAGS.BAS" into memory and RUN
the program.

      The program will display a small file list showing what "*.LST"
files are in the current directory.  Enter in the name of the tagline
file you wish to extract the taglines from (make sure you include the
".LST" extension) and the program will go through the file searching
for the taglines and add what it finds to "TAGLINES.OLX".  When
completed it will exit to DOS.

      Be patient!  The program isn't the fastest in the world under
QBASIC or GWBASIC but it does get the job done.

      For users of SLMR, rename the TAGLINES.OLX file to TAGLINES.MR.

      Questions about BASIC are beyond the scope of this FAQ.  Please
refer to your BASIC manual for more details.

Q: Are you sure there are no vulgar or duplicate taglines in your
   collection?

      As this collection grows in size the possibility of
near-duplicates being found increases.  Also I do my best to screen
out any vulgar taglines where possible...but I won't say that 100%
of such taglines have been removed.

      This tagline collection is scrutinized by a program I've
written to help clean up the file by removing such taglines where
possible and it is always in a constant state of improvement.  Yes,
all exact and some near-duplicate taglines are removed and most but
not all vulgar taglines are removed.

      It all comes down to whether human intervention is feasable.
For example, me sitting down and reading each individual tagline.
With the size of this file, that task would be rather inefficient.
By using a program to automate the process of removing such taglines
it saves plenty of time on my part and allows for each release to
seem more consistent.

      But the computer isn't human.  You have to tell it exactly what
to look for.  And I mean exactly.  I don't have the time to create a
context-based tagline filtering system.  But by looking for small
phrases and words which may sound a little suggestive it can help
reduce the risk.

      As for some near-duplicate tags which are different because of
mispellings I pray to the gawds to find a spell checker which doesn't
require human intervention.  I'm sure that there may be a few out
there by now so time will only tell until I implement such a program.

Q: Why is your tagline file not sorted?

      I've heard a few stories about how the random tagline function
in some offline readers sometimes doesn't offer a random tagline now
and then.  So, in order to help that problem I decided to randomize
the order of the taglines in my file.

      All you need to do is rename and replace this file for the main
tagline file for your mail reader then switch the mail reader to
select taglines sequentially.

      Also, I wanted to be a little different.  All tagline files
which I have seen released are always sorted.  So instead of me
sorting the file after it had most of the duplicate and possibly
vulgar taglines removed I created a small subprogram which will go
through the file and "shuffle" the taglines one by one.

      But the biggest reason that I purposely randomize this tagline
file is because most users will append this to their tagline
collection and will sort it eventually.  So why should I sort a
tagline file in the neatest ASCII order as possible when the end user
will end up appending this file to their collection and eventually
sort it themselves?

      Yes, it is indeed pointless.  So, with this infinite wisdom in
hand, I decided to create that tagline randomizing routine.  It may
slow down the works a little bit...but I run that program while I'm
sleeping so who really cares?

      Well, maybe there is a point.  Read on, my friend...

Q: Your file is too big!  Would you please sort it for me?

      I won't sort it but you can find a program on the BBSes I
upload this collection to called "QuikSort".  It is a very fast file
sorting program which can handle very large files.  How fast?
Download it and sort this tagline collection yourself.  I'm sure
you'll be more than amazed by it.

      In fact, if you compare how fast "QuikSort" sorts this file to
the sort function in OLX, you'll swear off using OLX's tagline sort
function FOREVER!  If the file is big enough, OLX will take about a
few hours to sort it.

      To quote a wise man, "Can't MSI do anything right?"

      Questions about "QuikSort" are beyond the scope of this FAQ.
Please review the online documentation which accompanies "QuikSort"
very carefully.

Q: Will the users get credit?

      Definitely.  In fact, here is the list of current contributors.
I will not go and say how many they contributed.  The fact that they
contributed Taglines to this Collection is more than enough (there is
no order to this list):

      Your Name Could Be Here If You Contribute Any Taglines {g}

      You see, there aren't many contributors yet...but time will
tell!  Wait until next month and hopefully this file will _double_ in
size.

Q: Where do I find your latest Tagline Collection?

      You may download my latest Tagline Collection from the
following BBSes:

      Metropitt BBS                [phone] 28.8k
      Sounding Board               [phone] 28.8k
      Software Creations BBS       [phone] 28.8k
      The Dead Leeeeeeeech Society [phone] 14.4k
      Brinkman's Hollow            [phone] 28.8k

      The magic filename is "MBTCyymm.ZIP"...where "yy" and "mm"
indicates the release year and month of the tagline file.  The latest
version is always uploaded a few days before the first of the next
month to these BBSes to allow for the new release to be downloaded
and spread to other BBSes.

Q: How do I become one of your Tagline Collection distribution
   BBSes?

      I'm currently not looking for additional boards where I'll
personally upload this collection to.  The main reason I distribute
this Tagline Collection to the boards listed above is that I am a
regular user on those BBSes.

      If you call one of the boards above every month to grab the
latest Tagline Collection, feel free and spread it to the BBSes you
call most often.

Q: How may I contact you if I want to trade taglines, let you know if
   I find a naughty tagline in your collection or just to ask a few
   questions?

      I can be contacted in two ways:

      One: Via Internet E-mail.  My Internet address is
           "[e-mail]".  If you have any comments about
           this file make sure you enter "Taglines" as the subject
           title...or I won't give it any serious thoughts and
           I will promptly delete it from my mailbox.

      Two: Via the WildNet Taglines conference.  For more information
           about finding a WildNet BBS near you which receives the
           WildNet Taglines conference please call Brinkman's Hollow
           and download the latest WildNet nodelist.

      I will NOT accept Fido Netmail due to excessive lag time.

Q: Is this the end of the MBTC-FAQ?

      Only until you see the following line of text:

[END OF FAQ]