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- Subject: The Not Quite Newbie TIO User FAQ
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- Summary: So you've used the Internet Oracle (TM), and now you're baffled by things? Here's a few answers.
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-
- Archive-name: usenet-oracle/user-faq
- Posting-Frequency: monthly (about the 20th)
- Last-modified: 22Dec01
- Version: 1.00c
- URL: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/rhod/info.html
-
- -----------------------------------
- The Not Quite Newbie TIO user FAQ
- -----------------------------------
-
- So you've used TIO (The Internet Oracle (TM)), but now you have a
- question?
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- First, get the Internet OracleTM help file:
- ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/oracle/help
- Then, check the Internet OracleTM resources:
- http://cgi.cs.indiana.edu/~oracle/index.cgi
- "Internet Oracle" is a trademark of Stephen B. Kinzler.
-
- Here you'll find answers to things not covered in either:
-
- 1. Votes
-
- 1.1 Where can I find votes in progress?
- 1.2 How do I read vote codes?
- 1.3 How do I find the best oracularities based on votes?
- 1.4 What happens when votes go over the top?
- 1.5 Your vote will be rejected if...
- 1.6 My question/answer is in the digest. Should I vote?
-
- 2. Answering questions, questioning answers
-
- 2.1 How come I haven't gotten an answer yet?
- 2.2 What does "The oracle has nothing to ask" mean?
- 2.3 What does "The Internet Oracle is pondering your question. Expect an
- answer in a day or two" mean?
- 2.4 Can I get my own question back?
- 2.5 What is queue draining?
- 2.6 I got the same question again. What now?
- 2.7 What if I answer my question more than 24 hours later?
- 2.8 How should I format my question? My answer?
- 2.9 I've found a very funny URL. Should I add it to my reply?
- 2.10 Can I actually use the "incarnated by ..." -line?
- 2.11 How do I reject a question?
- 2.12 I still haven't gotten a reply. Was my question deleted?
-
- II. Tired Old In-Jokes (TOIJs)
-
- II.1 What is the "You owe the Oracle" line?
- II.2 How much wood would a woodchuck ch-- ZOT!
- II.3 Why the grovel?
- II.4 Who's Lisa? Zadoc? Og?
-
- 3. Priestly secrets
-
- 3.1 How are oracularities parcelled out to the priests?
- 3.2 How many oracularities do the priests get?
- 3.3 How do priests choose oracularities for the digest?
- 3.4a When can I expect to see one of my oracularities in a digest?
- 3.4b When can I expect to see one of my oracularities in a digest?
- 3.5 Do the priests know who writes what?
- 3.6 What is priestly feedback?
- 3.7 How do I become a priest?
-
- 4. RHOD
-
- 4.1 Can I post my oracularity to rhod?
- 4.2 Scratch that, when can I post my oracularity to rhod?
- 4.3 What's alt.humor.oracle?
-
- 5. Ahem.
-
- 5.1 Is digestation really all that important, anyway?
-
- Thanks to rhodents and rhod-active priests for rho input given on rhod
- over
- the years, and to Richard Wilson for suggestions and additions. And to
- Steve Kinzler, of course, for starting the Oracle in the first place.
-
- rhodent = rhod regular.
- rhod = news:rec.humor.oracle.d
- rho = news:rec.humor.oracle
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 1. Votes
-
- An anonymous spokesperson of the Guild of Professional Incarnations told
- us
- that guild members suspect that the voters haven't quite gotten the hang
- of
- the "1=bad, 5=good" system yet. If that is indeed the case we might
- include
- an elaborate educational note in a later edition of this FAQ.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 1.1 Where can I find votes in progress?
-
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: Canadian, eh?
- From: Al Sharka <asharka.my-dejanews.com>
- Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:13:51 -0600
-
- Matt Kerbel wrote:
- > Al Sharka writes:
- > > Jim Menard wrote:
- > >> Daniel Hildebrandt writes:
- > >> > Jim Menard wrote:
- > >> > > Ian Davis writes:
- > >> > > > Now do it in alpha haiku.
- > >> > >
- > >> > > Already broken,
- > >> > > Cascades degenerate early.
- > >> > > Forget greater haiku.
- > >> >
- > >> > Weighing heavily
- > >> > upon my mind are thoughts of
- > >> > invalid haiku.
- > >>
- > >> Already begged crowd.
- > >> D'oh! Enough forgiveness gained.
- > >> Here I, Jim, kowtow.
- > >>
- > >> Laugh, misanthrope, now.
- > >> Other people quoting rhod
- > >> Slammed the ugly verse.
- > >>
- > >> Writhing xanthochroid[1]
- > >> Your zealous attack berates.
- > >> Cry, die, evermore.
- > >
- > > Haiku abounds here
- > > Yet ten eighty-zero four
- > > suffers in the vote.
- > >
- > > Two point six the mean,
- > > Forty-one votes are counted.
- > > Room for improvement.
- >
- > Supplicant not know
- > How to see current score of
- > Digest in progress
-
- ftp c s
- indiana e d u
- get votes2 file from
-
- pub slash oracle
- numbers start with zero so
- subtract one from four
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- Or try ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/oracle/votes , which gives the votes
- in
- a more readable format. This file is 160 kB (28Dec00), while the
- ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/oracle/votes2 -file is 243 kB (28Dec00).
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 1.2 How do I read vote codes?
-
- The "congrats" message you get if one of yours has been selected tells
- you
- what the codes in the votes -part of the digests mean. This is what it
- says:
-
- Congratulations! An Oracularity which you wrote the question or answer
- for
- has been selected and published in an issue of the Internet
- Oracularities,
- volume #xxxx. It received an average rating of x.x on a scale of 1 to 5,
- with votes from participating readers. The distribution of votes was
- xxxxx,
- where each digit represents the number of votes of value 1, of value 2,
- etc. Letters are used for digits beyond 9 (a=10, b=11...z=35, A=36,
- B=37...Z=61). To participate in the voting yourself in the future, see
- the
- instructions at the top of each digest.
-
- You don't get the congrats -message immediately; you have to wait for
- the
- votes to get in first. That takes five digests, so don't fret if it
- takes
- some time.
-
- I suggest you do participate in the voting. It's feedback the priests
- watch
- and respect, and if you like any given oracularity particularly much,
- give
- it a high vote.
-
- One caution, though: most all of us have chosen "reply to usenet"
- instead
- of "reply via email" -- once. If you do that, your votes are sent to
- rhod.
- O, the embarrassment!
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 1.3 How do I find the best oracularities based on votes?
-
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: Sore Umberto (was Re: Internet Oracularities Digest #1117)
- From: Al Sharka <asharka.yahoo.com>
- Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1999 14:01:11 -0500
-
- Matt Kerbel wrote:
- > Okay, I give. Where does one find the all-time top (or bottom) scoring
- oracularities? Is there a list somewhere, or do you just search for ">"
- on
- Ross' engine and sort by score?
-
- Get the votes2 file:
- ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/oracle/votes2
- Then sort it numerically descending by the third field and then
- numerically
- ascending by the first field. I suppose to do it right, you should
- evaluate
- the scores, and carry them to more than one decimal place. I don't know
- if
- Richard did that for sure, but I suspect he did, because otherwise
- 1115-9
- (1115.8) would be 95th.
- The digest numbers are in the format (x)xxx.y where (x)xxx is the
- digest,
- and y is the question.
- Since Steve is a "True" programmer, the question numbers begin with zero
- instead of one, so you have to add one to use Ross's search engine. Here
- are the first 33, since there is a tie at 4.3 starting at 15th place:
-
- <snip>
-
- Far better, here's a link to the All-Time Top 100 Oracularities (rec'd
- with
- thanks from Richard Wilson):
- http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/rhod/oracular-top-100.html
-
- and another link to the Real All-time Top 100 Oracularities (raw file
- rec'd
- with thanks from Richard Wilson, edited somewhat) (i.e., all entries
- with
- less than 15 votes scratched) (idunnat):
- http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/rhod/oracular-real-top-100.html
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 1.4 What happens when votes go over the top?
-
- From: Your friendly neighborhood cynic (scottdm.crux.rose-hulman.edu)
- Subject: Re: Oracularities voting results
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Date: 1995/09/21
-
- >> The real question is what happens when it gets above Z. Say when
- *everyone* votes a 5 for example.
- > You can see what happened when the voting passed Z in 733-02, which is
- visible on the web at
- >
- > http://cgi.cs.indiana.edu/~oracle/digest.cgi?N=733#733-02
- >
- > There, the voting results are listed as 98aq* 4.1, but that doesn't seem
- to be the final result since the votes files from Indiana list that one
- as
- 99ct* 4.0, with 121 votes. How many votes were 5s is left as an exercise
- for the reader. :-)
-
- He's right...I wrote that one! It is my crowning achievement thus far in
- Oracular endeavors. When I saw the * in the 5s slot, I was kind of
- surprised; I thought that there must have been some kind of error...I
- did
- the math, though, and realized what it meant soon enough. (Sorry, I
- don't
- remember how many. :) May any of you who read this group who haven't yet
- made it to a best of issue of the Oracularities do so...it's a neat
- feeling.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 1.5 Your vote will be rejected if...
-
- I asked Steve Kinzler: "What happens if...
-
- - you vote with numbers other than 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5
- - you vote for more or less than 10 oracularities?
-
- He said: "Any of these would invalidate a vote set and would lead to
- either
- not counting the set, returning the set for a retry or counting a
- corrected
- set."
-
- So the idle speculations about sending in a 0 vote for an oracularity
- you
- simply don't want to vote for (on rhod, back in 1998 or so) (voting,
- say, 1
- 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4) were without foundation. As were the idle
- speculations
- that Kinzler had set the software to count zeroes as fivers and votes
- over
- five as ones.
-
- ... except, there's that "counting a corrected set." Hmmm ...
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 1.6 My question/answer is in the digest. Should I vote?
-
- There's too few votes, if you ask me. So sure, go ahead. That way, if
- you
- liked your bit, you can influence the priests to select more of yours -
- give it a fiver. And if you didn't like your piece, you can really
- tell'em
- that you suck: give it a one.
-
- I dimly remember a discussion on rhod about priestly voting habits, a
- few
- years ago. They seem to be pretty divided on whether or not to vote on
- oracularities they've digested or otherwise contributed to.
-
- ... I'll leave all the habit jokes to your collective imaginations.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2. Answering questions, questioning answers
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.1 How come I haven't gotten an answer yet?
-
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d,alt.religion.kibology
- Subject: Re: [Rebeka Thomas] Name Change!
- From: "Lane Gray, Czar Castic" <E9c6zumball.mwis.net>
- Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 08:42:54 -0600
-
- Pooglian wrote:
- >>Meanwhile, I have not received an answer to the question I sent to the
- Oracle, but I did have some fantastic tofu-stuff with Thai basil in it
- that
- was out of sight, man.
- >Don't worry, it will get answered EVENTUALLY. I've never figured out how
- long the Oracle gives the first incarnation before putting a question
- back
- on the queue, but I suspect it's longer than the 24 hours that's often
- suggested. I've had to wait almost a week sometimes.
-
- Each incarnation gets 24 hours, then it goes back to the back of the
- queue.
- If the queue is fullish, it can take awhile for it to get back to the
- next
- incarnation. Also, I suspect that some questions get passed on by more
- than
- one incarnation. It took 2 weeks to get an answer to the woodchuck
- question
- (posed in Esperanto), but the third times' the charm. I got a hilarious
- answer, which I posted as a SL here a while ago, and mean to dig it up
- from
- deja, as it is lost to me, as it was done from the old 486 machine
- (RIP).
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.2 What does "The oracle has nothing to ask" mean?
-
- You've done an askme or five. The queue is now empty. Do a few creative
- tellmes. You won't get your own questions back, but others will
- appreciate
- them.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.3 What does "The Internet Oracle is pondering your question. Expect
- an
- answer in a day or two" mean?
-
- You've done a tellme or three. The queue contains no questions but
- yours.
- Do a few more creative tellmes. You won't get your own questions back,
- but
- others will appreciate them.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.4 Can I get my own question back?
-
- Yes, but only if you use two email addresses. Note that it is very much
- frowned upon to try to get your own question back.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.5 What is queue draining?
-
- 1) It's when somebody answers every askme they got (and they made sure
- they
- got plenty) with "Zot!", "Yes no hell!", or similar shows of advanced
- amentia. See point 5.1 for emphasis.
-
- 2) It's when somebody does lots of askmes without giving any tellmes
- back.
- If you do askmes until you get a question you like, you've drained the
- queue. True, all the ones you didn't answer go back to the queue after
- 24
- hours, but meanwhile, the rest of us have less to play with.
-
- True dimwits do either until they get the "no questions" back. This is
- very
- much frowned upon. If you're in the habit of doing this, be sure to give
- us
- your address, open your front door, and stand quivering in your tub.
- We'll
- be along shortly.
-
- (And then, of course, there's the sad individual who, after several
- lobotomies, thought that queue draining consisted of sending in tellme's
- ... may he rest in pieces.)
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.6 I got the same question again. What now?
-
- From: Henriette Kress <hetta.saunalahti.fi>
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: Rhod New Year Resolutions
- Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 10:13:12 +0200
-
- [3] I have no compunctions whatsoever about sending back identical
- answers,
- if TIO gave me, say, three identical questions. Two, okay, answer one,
- let
- one go back to the queue. But if you sent three, chances are you sent
- ten.
- At least space them out a bit so they end up in different inboxes, eh?
-
- From: HeySteveo.steveo.cjb.net (Robot Karate Man)
- I agree, to a point. If I get the same question at the same time, the
- person multi-submitted and deserves to get the same answer back. If I
- get
- the same question spaced out, it's obvious the supplicant didn't give a
- rat's ass for my answer, so I let it fall back into the queueue and do
- an
- askme.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.7 What if I answer my question more than 24 hours later?
-
- After 24 hours, your unanswered question goes back to the queue, and is
- picked up by another incarnation whenever. If you do answer late, the
- supplicant gets whichever answer is sent in first. If that is yours, the
- hard work of the -other- incarnation, who can't know that the question
- has
- already been answered, only goes to the priest. The supplicant will only
- see a second reply to his/her question if the priest digests it.
-
- When an answer is sent in the question is removed from the queue. Note
- that
- priests in general frown on late answers (not that they can tell from a
- single instance, but if you do it often you might get noticed.)
-
- If you find an unanswered question in your mailbox, say, six months
- later,
- your answer code might not be valid anymore. So, if you do answer it,
- chances are that nobody at all will see your muse's hard work.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.8 How should I format my question? My answer?
-
- * .sigs: remember to turn them off.
- * Trailing blank lines: if you want to be really neat, remove them.
- * MIME -code: avoid that, unless you really want to include it in
- your
- question.
- * Line length: oracularity line length is max 74, so if you want to
- make
- it easy for priests to digest your masterpiece, set your line
- length
- to 72. That leaves room for the "> " (question) or "} " (answer).
- * A long, rambling answer can be very good, but the punchline should
- top
- the jokes you made along the way. If it doesn't, go for shorter.
- * Re-read your question before sending it in.
- * Re-read the question -and- your answer before sending in your
- reply.
- That way you answer the right question.
- * You might have out a word, or or written one twice.
- * Check yr speling and, puntuation often;
-
- And when you send in your answer: remember, delete the question. Send in
- only your reply.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.9 I've found a very funny URL. Should I add it to my reply?
-
- From pieceoftheuniverse:
- 1) URLs are frowned upon in the Oracular community. Not only are they a
- cheap way out of a possibly engaging question, but they show no
- originality
- on the part of the incarnation.
-
- From Hetta:
- In addition, they'll be obsolete in about two years or so. While it
- might
- entertain your supplicant today, the 404 sure won't entertain any
- multitudes later on. In other words, you won't get digested.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.10 Can I actually use the "incarnated by ..." -line?
-
- Try this: do a search for "incarnated by" on Ross' Oracularity Search
- Page:
- http://www.wmin.ac.uk/~clemenr/ORACLE/search.html - not very many hits,
- eh?
- Priests in general like the idea of anonymous oracularities. That means
- that you have to be -really- funny, if you use that phrase and want to
- get
- digested. Now, listen closely, for there's a catch: if your answer is
- -that- funny, it won't get digested. Un-hnn, no chance. It'll be handed
- around for general merriment during the priesthood's annual Fiji
- retreat,
- instead.
-
- Trust me. I've heard it from Reliable Sources.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.11 How do I reject a question?
-
- So you've received a question, but for whatever reason, you think you
- can't
- do it justice. What now?
-
- Just delete it. Forget about it. Don't reply. In 24 hours another
- incarnation will receive the same question. Unless, of course, the queue
- is
- full, in which case it may take longer than 24 hours.
-
- If you also got the message "The queue is getting full ..." you could
- send
- in a separate askme.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- On a related note, you don't have to know the subject matter at hand in
- order to give an entertaining answer:
-
- From: Tom Harrington (tph....)
- Subject: Re: Oracle protocol
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Date: 1995/08/15
-
- morse.garnet.msen.com (Johnson Bookbinding) wrote:
- : I noticed that the Oracle was asking for more "ask me" messages to help
- un-jam the back-log. I ask-me'd a couple of times and took care of them
- in
- short order, but the next question was one that I didn't think I could
- handle as well as someone else (it was a computer question, and I only
- know
- enough to just turn on one of the things, not how it works).
-
- The Oracle's intended for humor; you don't need a deep technical
- understanding of the question to write a funny answer, usually. It
- doesn't
- hurt, but it's not a requirement. I know I've answered questions on
- topics
- I knew almost nothing about, and had quite a good time at it. :-)
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 2.12 I _still_ haven't gotten a reply. Was my question deleted?
-
- It might have been swallowed by a glitch in emailing software or by,
- say, a
- full mailbox or an incorrect return email address, but the Oracular
- Queue
- doesn't swallow questions never to be spit out again. I asked Kinzler:
- "Are
- questions deleted from the queue if enough incarnations let them slip
- back?
- Say, ten tries and it's a goner?" and he said: "Nope, there's currently
- no
- feature like this."
-
- While I had his attention I also asked if he'd implemented any automated
- replies for "do-me" or "zot-me" in the subject line (see BoRHOD Jun95,
- Jul95: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/rhod/1995/jun95.html or
- jul95.html).
- He said no...
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- II. Tired Old In-Jokes (TOIJs)
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- II.1 What is the "You owe the Oracle" line?
-
- Way back when, when the Oracle was just a young'un, he had a computer
- program that added random YOTOs to his answers. Alas, he's old and
- arthritic now, his computer went down the drain years before the Y2K
- problems, and nobody on Mount Olympus quite knew how to install a new
- one.
- So the tribute request is no longer added automatically.
-
- However, incarnations have found that a YOTO -line, if chosen carefully,
- sometimes can add immensely to the answer.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- II.2 How much wood would a woodchuck ch-- ZOT!
-
- From Richard Wilson:
- The Oracle hates having to answer the same question over and over. And
- no
- question has been asked more often, and in more ways, than the ghastly
- w**dchuck question. As a result, the Oracle detests not only the
- question,
- but also w**dchucks generally. Rumours that an organisation called ROUS
- (Rodents Of Unusual Size) headed by a certain Queen Chuckzilla are
- striving
- to overthrow the Oracle are, of course, nothing more than paranoid
- delusions. All the same, avoid w**dchucks unless you're confident you
- have
- an original slant on the subject.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- II.3 Why the grovel?
-
- Why do people start their questions with things like "Oh great and
- bodacious Oracle, whose toenails I'm not worthy to polish, who can move
- the
- moon, who can moon the sun, who ..."?
-
- From Richard Wilson:
- At some stage in his early career, the Oracle took on the aspect of a
- vengeful Old Testament style god, and started ZOTting supplicants who
- displeased him (particularly by asking the w**dchuck question - see
- above).
- Nobody is quite sure exactly what a ZOT entails, other than it resembles
- being hit by a scaled-up version of the BC comic strip's anteater's
- tongue
- and is almost invariably lethal. A Staff of Zot [tm] has been postulated
- as
- the weapon used. (see borhod Jul95
- http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/rhod/1995/jul95.html#zot for more info on
- this.)
-
- To be on the safe side, supplicants started to grovel. Although
- supplicants
- should never be punished solely because their question lacks a grovel,
- an
- imaginative and/or elaborate effort invariably puts the Oracle in a good
- mood.
-
- Note: It takes a certain amount of skill to pull off a successful
- Zotting.
- If you don't have that, you'd best avoid the Staff of Zot. It is, after
- all, usually just a cheap cop-out.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- From: Tom Phoenix (rootbeer....)
- Subject: Re: Two things that have gotten *extremely* old
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Date: 1995/09/07
-
- x wrote:
- > I've made a practice of zoting anybody that doesn't include a grovel.
-
- Somebody else said it better once before,
-
- "No grovel? Zot!" isn't funny any more, if it ever was.
-
- I like it when someone includes a grovel, but groveling is only a
- custom,
- not a law.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- II.4 Who's Lisa? Zadoc? Og?
-
- They're one way to do an interesting narrative, if you are good at
- narrative, that is. They're also Tired Old In-Jokes. That means that not
- everybody likes them, and -that- means that using them might lessen your
- chance at digestation. That being said, you'll find that the most
- prominent
- TOIJs have their own webpages. Well, almost all of them, anyway:
-
- Lisa is a net.sex.goddess that has been making regular appearances as
- the
- Oracle's SO since before the digests began. Paradoxically, she has no
- website dedicated to her voluminous charms.
-
- For Zadoc, I refer you to the Zadocularities page:
- http://www.molerat.demon.co.uk/zadoc.htm - here you'll also find the
- Staff
- of Zot, prominently displayed. Not to mention Lisa, for whom prominent
- display is a way of life.
-
- For Og, there's the Og page:
- http://www2.wmin.ac.uk/clemenr/ORACLE/og.html
-
- For an example of a Tired New In-Joke, there's the Ladies from Delphic
- Research, Inc. Their office is here: http://www.unitedheroes.net/dri/ .
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 3. Priestly secrets
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 3.1 How are oracularities parceled out to the priests?
-
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: Q & A dist
- From: Al Sharka <asharka.my-dejanews.com>
- Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 22:04:14 -0500
-
- On Wed, 12 May 1999, Rhod Stewart wrote:
- > Anyone know how answers are parceled out to the priests? Do questions get
- divided up amongst all priests and the questions sent to the priests not
- playing anymore just get tossed in the trash? Or do priests ask for
- questions to review in a 'askme' type fashion? How do ques/answs get
- "assigned"?
-
- A quick search of deja gives the answer in the form of Dr. Noe spilling
- the
- beans:
-
- Each priest has a current "load status", which is a whole number. Usual
- load is 1, but when a Priest is going to be away from e-mail for a while
- (such as a trip to the asylum brought on by reading too many
- Oracularities), his/her load can be set to 0. When a Priest goes REALLY
- nuts, she/he/it/they may request increasing the load to more than 1. Now
- imagine a list on which every Priest's name appears a number of times
- equal
- to the Priest's load status. Incoming submissions are sent to the next
- name
- on the list, with the process continuing to the next name, ad nauseam.
- So
- if there are 12 Priests each with a load of 1, each will receive one
- submission out of every 12 consecutive ones. This is a fairly typical
- situation, and the result is each Priest reviews around 9 or 10
- submissions
- daily. Under normal circumstances, no submission is reviewed by more
- than
- one Priest. So it's more or less random which Priest gets your question
- and
- answer, depending on the relative order in which they arrive.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 3.2 How many oracularities do the priests get?
-
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: What to do, what to do?
- From: Ian Davis <Ian.Davis.ludwig.edu.au>
- Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 08:06:24 +1100
-
- Petulantia Spliffbint wrote:
- > Also Sprach Richard Wilson:
- > > I suspect a number of factors affect what gets into the digest, but the
- biggest is probably the numbers of Oracularities that have to be sifted
- through these days. Picking the best 10 out of 100 is reasonably
- straight-forward and unlikely to lead to controversial choices; if it's
- 10
- out of 1000 or more the choice starts to look random to most observers.
- > I'd be intrigued to know what the actual ratio is. 10 in 1000 sounds a
- little high to me.
-
- According to this week's figures, 18 active priests reviewed 585
- oracularities and returned 17 (2.9%). Thus far, of the 312925
- oracularities
- in the history of the Oracle, 4% have been published for an average vote
- of 3.02.
-
- One day this sort of information will accidentally be radioed into
- space.
- Wiser and kinder beings than we, on a gentle planet circling a distant
- sun,
- will pick this up on their SEPI (Search for Extra-Planetary Idiocy)
- program
- and will order the destruction of this planet, with regret but no
- remorse.
-
- Ian.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 3.3 How do priests choose oracularities for the digest?
-
- That's fairly easy. They select things that make them laugh. Or chuckle.
- Or
- groan, in the case of puns. If your masterpiece can't move an overworked
- priest to at least a smile, but it still isn't complete dross, it
- usually
- goes into a "maybe" folder. Some priests check their folders regularly,
- say, every month or so, some don't. Some don't keep any "maybe" folders,
- some keep two.
-
- Both priests and supplicants like to see some effort go into your
- answer.
- And answers like "Zot!" or "You didn't grovel, scum!" are -extremely-
- unlikely to either entertain the supplicant or make a digest.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 3.4a When can I expect to see one of my oracularities in a digest?
-
- Subject: Re: Cutoffs for oracularities
- From: Scott Panzer <stenor.pcnet.com>
- Date: 1996/01/13
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
-
- Pete Krawczyk, pkrawczy.uiuc.edu writes:
- >When exactly is the cutoff for the Oracularities?
- >For example, I sent one in this morning at 8 am CST. The times on 806-*
- say 4 pm EST. Was mine considered for 806 or does it roll over to 807?
-
- There is none. There is no deadline for any particular issue, nor does
- the
- Priesthood review any given Oracularity with publication in a
- *particular*
- issue in mind.
-
- The way it works is this: incoming Oracularities are distributed evenly
- among the Priesthood for review, each Oracularity going to exactly one
- priest. If the priest likes it, s/he sends it back to Steve Kinzler to
- be
- published. When Kinzler has accumulated 10 Oracularities the group of
- them
- are published as a digest.
-
- Kinzler, as editor, reviews the collection and sends it out. There may
- be a
- little lag between the time 10 Oracularities are accumulated and the
- time
- the digest actually gets sent out, so it's possible that some
- Oracularities
- have accumulated for the next digest before the current digest has been
- sent out.
-
- In any case, the digest your Oracularity appears in depends mostly on
- how
- quickly it is reviewed by the priest to whom it has been sent for
- review.
- That could be anywhere from within an hour or two to several days.
-
- Hope this helps.
- Scott Panzer, Priest
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: Deja Vu
- From: cierhart.ic.net (Otis Viles)
- Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 23:11:08 GMT
-
- On Fri, 05 Nov 1999 06:58:24 GMT, pooga.home.com.RemoveThis (Pooglian)
- wrote:
- >So under normal circumstances, only one priest will get an Oracularity?
- Makes sense, I'm just trying to clarify this in my mind.
-
- That's the way it works but sometimes we pass one around a mailing list
- if
- we think it's got some substance but not enough that we personally would
- Digest it.
-
- (Note. A few priests spoke up on rhod during the DRI flap (Dec00). They
- said that there are -far- too many oracularities in their inboxes for
- oracularities to be shared routinely on the priestly list. It's more a
- once
- in a blue moon thing.)
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 3.4b When can I expect to see one of my oracularities in a digest?
-
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: How long?
- From: Richard Wilson <richard.molerat.demon.co.uk>
- Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 09:17:19 +0000
-
- Fierce Cookie <putain.de.2cv.mindspring.com> writes
- >"Stimpy JC" <Stimpy.SPAM.wgt.org.uk> wrote:
- >>No, not that question, I mean how long do you have to wait after writing
- an Ocularity that you thought should have been digested until you give
- up
- and post it to RHOD in hopes of someone else finding it at least a
- teensy
- bit funny?
- >>Oh, and yes, I'm back, I didn't go away, I just lurked for a while cause
- I wasn't doing anything particularly worth posting about, and I was
- feeling
- far too unsociable to respond to anything.
- >>Uhm.. yeah. So, how long?
-
- Going from personal experience of digested oracularities:
-
- 90% appear in the next digest
- 9% appear in the digest after that
- 0.9% appear when the moon is in the 7th house and Jupiter aligns with
- Mars
- 0.09% appear in at least 2 of the above
-
- >Give it at least a month, and if it doesn't clear up, see a dermatologist.
-
- And 0.01% are written in April and Putain de 2CV decides to save them up
- for the following Christmas for reasons too abstruse to enter into here.
-
- -Richard Wilson-*----*----*----*-----*-richard.molerat.demon.co.uk-
- --*----*---*---*----OTOH, if your answer was actually funny,it'll--
- --*-----*--*----*----*-have ended up on the priests' secret list---
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 3.5 Do the priests know who writes what?
-
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: Lisa/Santa/Priest bashing
- From: drey.speakeasy.org (Otis Viles)
- Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 23:36:13 GMT
-
- Wikkit <latebird.usa.net> wrote:
- >Anyway, on the digest system. I've heard of priests getting ticked off and
- mailing the supplicant or incarnation for being a moron, or mean, or
- whetever. Doesn't that screw up the system? If you were one of the few
- priests that still hang out in this forum, and you were not getting
- along
- with one of the people here, wouldn't that bias the way you filter
- through
- the messages? Or has the all-mighty Stephen B. Kinzler made it blind?
-
- The whole thing is anonymous. The email address of both the Supplicant
- and
- the Incarnation is hidden from us the entire time. When we send
- feedback,
- it's through a remailer that can figure out who it needs to go back to.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 3.6 What is priestly feedback?
-
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: Irony
- From: HeySteveo.steveo.cjb.net (Robot Karate Man)
- Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 16:54:46 -0000
-
- Simon J Grimshaw wrote:
- >> Well, it got Oracle feedback from me...
- >Oracle Feedback? Loud wailing Hendrix-esque tones, or is this something
- else (the process by which the digests are chosen??)
-
- Oracular Feedback is when one of the priests snaps and sends you an
- email
- about your last incarnation telling you off for being mean to the
- supplicant, flogging you for being consistently unfunny, berating you
- for
- trying to create in-jokes about the Oracle's dog, and speaking in a high
- squeaky voice that irritates the priests until they start hitting their
- heads with hammers begging for the noise to stop please God stop
- aaaaaayyyyyeeeeeeeeeee!!!
-
- Ok, so maybe that was just the feedback I got from Paul.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 3.7 How do I become a priest?
-
- Ask Steve Kinzler.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 4. RHOD
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 4.1 Can I post my oracularity to rhod?
-
- So you've written a great answer to a question you got, but the priests
- (the fiends!) haven't deigned to select the resulting oracularity for a
- digest? Sure, go ahead and post it as a SL (sore loser) to rhod
- (news:rec.humor.oracle.d). Maybe you'll even get comments on it there.
-
- You should wait for a decent amount of time first, though, to give
- priests
- a chance. They throw away any rhod-posted SLs they have in their maybe
- folders, so chances for digestion, after a SL post, are slim. Things
- might
- sit in these maybe folders for a -long- time, too - some priests check
- their folders every month, others only when it snows in the Sahara.
-
- ----- SL'ing questions: -----
-
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: Looking for incarnation (credit where credit is due)
- From: drey.speakeasy.org (Otis Viles)
- Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 23:59:07 GMT
-
- Gordol <postmaster.gordol.org> wrote:
- >May I remind you that the Answer is only one part of the thing? Without
- the Question, there is no answer. I think supplicants can SL as well as
- Incarnations. Given a decent waiting period to see if it gets digested
- first, of course.
-
- Precisely. Neither party should SL here until both parties agree that a
- sufficient waiting period has passed. The Priesthood will leave it up to
- the Supplicant and Incarnation to contact each other and work out the
- details of how long is sufficient.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 4.2 Scratch that, when can I post my oracularity to rhod?
-
- After two months. <looks around> Why are you all looking at me like
- that?
- It's a good rule of thumb!
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 4.3 What's alt.humor.oracle?
-
- From: Michael Jennings (M.J.Jennings.amtp.cam.ac.uk)
- Subject: Re: A question for all you Oracle users
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Date: 1995/08/28
-
- Thomas Pscheidt <pscheidt.ix.netcom.com> wrote:
- >What the heck is alt.humor.oracle? It has nothing but very strange
- messages. I know Orrie moves in mysterious ways, but really....
-
- alt.humor.oracle is the group that the Oracularities were posted to
- before
- the oracle moved into the big 7 hierarchies when rec.humor.oracle and
- rec.humor.oracle.d were created. As it is practically impossible to
- delete
- alt groups these days, alt.humor.oracle remains as a surreal shadow of
- its
- former self.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 5. Ahem.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- 5.1 Is digestation really all that important, anyway?
-
- From: putain.de.2cv.mindspring.com (Fierce Cookie)
- Newsgroups: rec.humor.oracle.d
- Subject: Re: Alright then...
- Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2000 12:13:37 GMT
-
- I'll come back to the basic point that I've tried to make, over and
- over,
- but the horse is obviously not yet dead so I'll keep beating it. The
- point
- of the Oracle IS NOT AND NEVER HAS BEEN TO MAXIMIZE YOUR PUBLIC EXPOSURE
- THROUGH THE DIGEST. If that is your goal, you're going about it all
- wrong.
- As the supplicant, strive to create a germ of creativity in the
- incarnation. If you're an incarnation, strive to entertain the
- supplicant.
- If you do these things, you are using the service appropriately. If the
- priest who receives an Oracularity likes it, the Oracularity goes in the
- digest. I like to think of the digests as advertising for the service in
- general -- people read them, then say, "wow, that looks cool, I'll get
- the
- help file so *I* can play, too." I can't help but think that all the
- null
- questions, all the bitchy ZOT incarnations we see, are the direct result
- of
- people thinking that the whole point of incarnating is to see your words
- in
- print. Jeez, there are easier ways to do that -- post to Usenet. Doing
- it
- right, playing the game, trying to entertain the supplicant, will result
- in
- the maximization of fun, and in the bargain will probably result in more
- digestations.
-
- --------------------------------------
-
- Or, as one priest told me by private email (added with permission):
-
- Um...did you enjoy writing it? Did you have fun while you were doing it?
- Don't place so much emphasis on what the priesthood selects. Concentrate
- on
- enjoying the process, and tell us to <censored><censored> for having our
- snotty opinions. If you get to the point where you no longer consider
- what
- we have to say about things to matter at all, then you will be on top of
- it.
-
- --------------------------------------
- THE END.
- You owe the Oracle a good time^Wtellme or three.
- --------------------------------------
-
- --
- Henriette Kress Helsinki, Finland
- Best of Rhod: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/rhod/main.html
- Henriette's herbal homepage: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed
-