From a80ce23826470bbecfe7d3a75ccc952385c496f8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Andrew Price Milliways has existed for a very long time and its regular users include members both past and present, as such there is a sense of community, and like any community a number of rules of etiquette have formed over the years. The denizens of Milliways are usually polite and helpful to strangers and newcomers, but do expect those that wish to hang around to familiarise themselves with "the way things are" and play nice. As with most communities, newcomers need to show respect for the existing members and not expect the community to immediately adapt to accommodate them. So the following is an attempt to describe some of the more usual pitfalls that a new user may come across. Nothing Personal Milliways is a relaxed and informal environment, and as such there is often a lot of joking and messing around, a part of this that a newcomer may find difficult at first is the way that users will often ridicule and criticise each other, themselves, and anything else that catches their attention. If you happen to become the target of such comments then do not take it as a personal attack, it usually isn't. Spelling Users are expected to express themselves using full and valid English sentences and words, the use of "txt spk" is not tolerated, and any bad spellings, abbreviations, and general bad use of English will typically result in corrections being offered, or scorn poured upon, as appropriate. Not only does proper use of English allow you to make yourself better understood, but it is good practice in preparation for the Real World (and "txt spk" really isn't any quicker than real English if you are practiced). Meta-Questions aka Ask or Ask Not, there is no "May I" If you have a question or something that you require help on, just come straight out and ask it, be as specific as you can, no asking "can I ask a question?". Ask the actual question and anybody that is able and willing to help will do so, if you get no answer its because nobody can help you. Don't repeatedly ask the same question if no one is replying - if someone was able to help they would do, asking them over and over will just annoy and reduce the chance of someone helping in future. Don't assume people know exactly what you are talking about just because your question is obvious in the context of your specific course. For example, a programming question like "how do I do $foo" is less helpful than "how do I do $foo in $language". The former is likely to get you answers covering C, Python, Haskell, etc. rather than the language you are interested in. Flooding the Channel If you have anything that you wish to share with the world (for criticism generally ;) that is more than a line or two of text then you should make use of the SUCS website utilities of ShortURI and PasteBin as appropriate, and just paste the resulting url instead. this saves cluttering up the screens of all of the users. In the case of questions on items of coursework it would be a good idea only to paste the section around the actual problem, not your entire answer, as anybody can see the result. Further Reading Eric Raymond maintains quite a good (but long) document on how to ask questions in a technical forum. It is worth a read if you have time: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
+Milliways regulars include society members from both past and present, and some
+who just like to use Milliways but have never been part of the society. There
+is a unique sense of community, and you will often find passionate debate on
+all sorts of subjects from programming to politics, plus the odd pun.
+
+It can be a little daunting when first joining Milliways as the community is so
+well established, but stick around and get to know how things work and you'll
+soon find out how to get the most out of Milliways. If you find any way
+that Milliways can be improved, let us know. Milliways is an open source
+project developed by SUCS members since 1992 and it changes regularly!
+
+Below are a few guidelines that every user should follow so that Milliways can
+be a place where people want to hang out and tell their friends about.
+
+You're Talking To Humans
+
+It's important to keep in mind that there are real people behind the usernames
+and that they all have their own backgrounds and experiences, and perhaps some
+of them are even having a bad day. Use good judgement as to your familiarity
+with other users and the power dynamic between you before choosing your words,
+especially when using light hearted banter.
+
+It is tempting to ask if you can ask a question on Milliways, or if anyone is +around who knows about a certain subject, but if you have a question or +something that you require help with, the best thing to do is to ask that +question straight away. Provide as much context as you can. You may have to +wait for an answer outside of busy hours and if you do not get an answer it can +be useful to other users to report back when you've found the answer elsewhere. +If the question is likely to be answered with a quick web search, try that +first to save time. Note that students asking for coursework solutions will +likely encounter silence but asking very specific questions to help you +understand the concepts you need is highly encouraged. +
++Answering Questions +
++Particularly with newcomers, it's important to appreciate that asking a +question may be a difficult thing to do. We were all new students and new to +Milliways at one point. If you think the answer is obvious or simple, it's best +to keep that to yourself to avoid belittling the asker. Not everybody has the +same knowledge in their head. +
++Don't Flood the Talker +
++If you have anything that you wish to share on Milliways that is more than a +line or two of text then you should make use of a pastebin, such as the SUCS PasteBin and +there is also a SUCS URI shortener for posting very long links without +flooding, although many long URIs can be shortened greatly just by trimming the +ad tracking elements from them. +
-- GitLab From 78b050985b85454482af726cb3a764fb64748106 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Imran HussainSUCS is one of the university's longest-running and largest societies. In addition to providing members with a range of IT services, we hold regular events and socials throughout the year. +
+ + +Established in 1988 we are a community of people that enjoy technology and being creative. We also offer a wide variety of services that our members greatly benefit from.
+Hold regular events both technical and non-technical.
+Have several active projects going on that any member can join in on.
+Offer our members a dedicated 24/7 space.
+Active alumni network with members working at RedHat, Google, Microsoft etc...
++ Come chat with us on one of the oldest Bulletin Board Systems in the UK, Milliways!. Exisiting members can log in by SSH'ing into silver (ssh sucs.org) and running the command 'mw'. Non-members can join by SSH'ing in as the user BBS with the password 'bbs' (ssh bbs@sucs.org). There is a quick guide on Using MW that is recommended. +
++ We also run a Discord server that is more easily accessible on a wider variety of platforms. +
+We run regular technical and non-technical events.
+We run our own dedicated lab that's accessible 24/7.
+With over 100 members from all manner of backgrounds SUCS has a rich diverse community.
+Members can request virtual machines for use for projects or prototyping.
+Members can take advantage of our web-hosting faculties to showcase their work or ideas.
+We run numerous projects that people can jump in and out. Support for hosting your own projects is possible with our own Gitlab server
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