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Callahan's Bar Rag February 1994 Edition!Newsletter of the Callahan's Saloon Custom Forum on DelphiIn this issue: Welcome - New Books - Conference Commands - Part 2 - Starfox | ||||
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To those of you who have joined us recently, welcome. I think you will find us a fun group of people. I hope you find the conversations fun and interesting. Feel free to add your comments to any thread of conversation in the forum that strikes your interest, or start a new topic of your own. Our Happy Hours are on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening starting at 10:00 PM EST, however there are plans in the works to expand those times. You may come on line any night and find people in the bar, though. If you arrive and no one is there at all, feel free to start your own conference, and invite anyone you wish. For you who are new, or some of you older regulars who have not read the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon stories, read post 640 for a quick synopsis of what Callahan's is all about. Hardbacks: Lyon's Pride by Anne McCaffrey; Ace -- 22.95 Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh; Daw -- 20.00 Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts; Roc -- 22.00 The Ships of Earth by Orson Scott Card; Tor -- 22.95 Dragonlance Saga: The Second Generation by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman; TSR -- 19.95 Trade paperbacks: Shadow of the Well of Souls by Jack Chalker; Del Rey -- 10.00 Paperbacks: Damia's Children by Anne McCaffrey; Ace -- 5.99 Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein; Baen -- 5.99 Bardic Choices: A Cast of Corbies by Mercedes Lackey & Josepha Sherman; Baen -- 5.99 Star Wars, Volume 3: The Last Command by Timothy Zahn; Bantam -- 5.99 Catfantastic III edited by Andre Norton; Daw -- 4.99 Earthsong: Native Tongue III by Suzette Haden Elgin; Daw -- 4.99 The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley; Daw -- 4.99 Echoes at the Well of Souls by Jack Chalker; Del Rey -- 5.99 We Open on Venus: Book Two of Starship Troupers by Christopher Stasheff; Del Rey -- 5.99 Star Trek TNG: The Devil's Heart by Carmen Carter; Pocket -- 5.99 Star Trek DS9: Fallen Heroes by Dafydd ab Hugh; Pocket -- 5.50 Shadowrun: Lone Wolf by Nigel Findley; Roc -- 4.99 Demon's Don't Dream by Piers Anthony; Tor -- 5.99 Purgatory by Mike Resnik; Tor -- 4.99 The Siege by Bill Baldwin; Warner Questar -- 5.50 The Children of Men by P.D. James; Warner Vision -- 6.50 (This is part two of a three part article. In this issue, we'll talk about etiquette and tell you how to find out more about the people you are talking to, and how to let them find out more about you.) The first thing to remember, is that there is a person on the other side of the connection, not just a computer. Use the same courtesies as you would in a spoken conversation. Subtlety and humor are not communicated well in written form - especially over a computer. Therefore, ironic comments should be accompanied by an emoticon (also known as a smiley) or some other qualifier to explain that it is supposed to be taken lightly. A couple of examples are: :) :^) ;^) or <G> <VBG> <GRIN> One problem with smileys, is that some of our members have vision impairments. Many of these folks use screen readers. (That's a program that literally reads the text on screen out loud.) Most of these people realize that colon parentheses is a smiley, but huge ASCII graphics can drive them crazy. It is also possible to turn off the punctuation feature on some readers, in which case, the irony could be missed entirely. I used to have a large banner welcoming people to Callahan's, but after I learned about screen readers, I removed my graphics. Also, be conscious of case in typing. Most on-line conversations are done in a kind of shorthand, so all lower case is OK, but typing messages in all UPPER CASE, is the same as yelling. It should only be used to make a point. Along the same line, it is perfectly OK to leave out nonessential words such as a an and the in order to speed the conversation along. Also, typing quickly leads to occasional misspellings. Unless you point is changed entirely by it, don't worry about correcting it. Most of us will understand what you are trying to say. Finally, there's the etiquette of allowing others to know who you are. As we learned last issue, typing /whois (Membername) will give you the profile of that member. This only happens if the member has created a profile. That is easily accomplished by going to the Member Directory from Main menu. You will see this menu: People on DELPHI Menu:
I-Am PEOPLE>(I-Am,Who-Is,Browse,Search): Choose I-Am. You will then see this: You currently have no information about yourself on file. While this is a "free-format" system, in which all data items about you are supplied at your option, there are a few things that we consider to be of general interest. Please answer the following questions: Where do you live (City, State, etc.)? Fill in the info, and you will then be prompted for: What kind of computer(s) do you own? After you supply this information, the final question you are asked is: What terminal software do you use? This completes the basic profile. However, most people like to add a little more info. Try looking up a few profiles to get some ideas. At the main prompt of this section, if you type Who-Is, it will ask: Which Membername? Type NGREENE, and you will get:
NAME : Nick Greene In order to expand your profile, at the I-Am menu, type Add: ADD What KEYWORD (? for a list.) : Choose a Keyword then you will see this prompt: Enter information about (KEYWORD.) Type CTRL/Z when finished. It's that simple. When you are finished, everyone can look you up, and know a little about you. This saves time in conference, and you often find that some people share similar interests. I noticed that some of you put Callahan's as your bar of choice in your profiles. I really appreciate that. I owe you guys a free drink. Stop in for Happy Hour and collect. Next month begins a new column written by Starfox, Spiritual counselor and healer, and Speaker for the Dead. Please feel free to Email questions of any kind to me, or to Starfox. In addition to answering questions, he will be sharing his insights and wisdom with you.
"All paths of light lead to Oneness. Paths of darkness lead to
Nothing." Back issues of the Bar Rag are available in the database. If you do not wish to continue receiving this newsletter, just drop me a line. If you like it, show it to a friend. I'd be happy to add them to my mailing list. Thanks for your support. Nick (NGREENE) |