Give Back to IT Community (Help)

Guys,

I want to start giving back to the IT Community, and start helping
out. I would appreciate if you guys could answer some of the below
questions.

1. How do you guys read your newsgroup subscriptions? Software or
Via Web? List which do you use.

2. Which web portals do you recommend to use to read/respond to posts
& blogs during lunch/break at work? (At work I cant access newsgroups
or blogs via a program or nntp)

3. What program do you guys use for managing your blog subscriptions?
Software or Via Web? List which do you use.

4. How do you keep track of all the messages you've posted or replied
too, this way you can follow-up on it, in case someone responds?

5. Do you guys provide your email address in your posts? If you do,
how do you handle protecting yourself from spam? If you dont, how
does anyone ever get a hold of you, if needed?

6. Out of curiosity, what email provider do you use, and what program
do you use to read your emails?

7. What do I need to do to make sure I get credit for giving back to
the community, this way I can work my way up to an MVP?

8. How else can I become part of the IT community and start giving
back and networking? Any Ideas?

I appreciate you taking your time to respond to my posts, and I plan
to begin giving back to the IT community, and hope we can become
friends.

- Julio (DJ)

est
Sun Dec 17 21:17:40 CST 2006

In fact all the answers came into one: Google.
1=2E Gogole Reader
2=2E Google Personalized Homepage
3=2E Google Reader
4=2E Google Reader
5=2E GMail filter
6=2E GMail, of course.
7=2E Google Groups

"Julio C. Delgado Jr. (DJ) =D0=B4=B5=C0=A3=BA
"
> Guys,
>
> I want to start giving back to the IT Community, and start helping
> out. I would appreciate if you guys could answer some of the below
> questions.
>
> 1. How do you guys read your newsgroup subscriptions? Software or
> Via Web? List which do you use.
>
> 2. Which web portals do you recommend to use to read/respond to posts
> & blogs during lunch/break at work? (At work I cant access newsgroups
> or blogs via a program or nntp)
>
> 3. What program do you guys use for managing your blog subscriptions?
> Software or Via Web? List which do you use.
>
> 4. How do you keep track of all the messages you've posted or replied
> too, this way you can follow-up on it, in case someone responds?
>
> 5. Do you guys provide your email address in your posts? If you do,
> how do you handle protecting yourself from spam? If you dont, how
> does anyone ever get a hold of you, if needed?
>
> 6. Out of curiosity, what email provider do you use, and what program
> do you use to read your emails?
>
> 7. What do I need to do to make sure I get credit for giving back to
> the community, this way I can work my way up to an MVP?
>
> 8. How else can I become part of the IT community and start giving
> back and networking? Any Ideas?
>
> I appreciate you taking your time to respond to my posts, and I plan
> to begin giving back to the IT community, and hope we can become
> friends. =20
>=20
> - Julio (DJ)

mayayana
Sun Dec 17 22:37:37 CST 2006


>
> 1. How do you guys read your newsgroup subscriptions? Software or
> Via Web? List which do you use.
>
I use Outlook Express. If I were not so accustomed
to it, I'd probably switch to Thunderbird. I got stuck
using Google last week because my ISP was having
trouble. Google is convenient because you can access it
anywhere. But that's the only good thing as far as I'm
concerned. If Google groups was the only way I could
get Usenet, I wouldn't bother. It's to awkward to read,
and one has to sign up with Google in order to post.

To my mind, web-based newsgroups is
a very stupid idea. I have Earthlink as an ISP and I
get all the groups I want through them. If you don't
get groups with your ISP you can pay for a service,
starting at about $5/month.

> 2. Which web portals do you recommend to use to read/respond to posts
> & blogs during lunch/break at work? (At work I cant access newsgroups
> or blogs via a program or nntp)
>
> 3. What program do you guys use for managing your blog subscriptions?
> Software or Via Web? List which do you use.
>
I don't read or post at work and don't post to "blogs".
Why do you assume that people subscribe to blogs?
I've never seen a blog of any kind that I find that
interesting.

> 5. Do you guys provide your email address in your posts? If you do,
> how do you handle protecting yourself from spam? If you dont, how
> does anyone ever get a hold of you, if needed?
>
You can provide your email address by providing
a distorted version for your return address. That way
the "harvesting bots" won't pick it up. If you post
someone@somewhere.com then you'll get a big
spam increase pretty quickly. But if you post
something like "someone at somewhere dot comm"
you're OK.

> 6. Out of curiosity, what email provider do you use, and what program
> do you use to read your emails?
>
I use Outlook Express, but only because I'm used
to it. Otherwise I'd probably use Thunderbird. The
reason for that is because OE is not very safe, since
the HTML email view is actually an IE window.
I end up reading unrecognized email in "raw" form first,
to be on the safe side.

> 7. What do I need to do to make sure I get credit for giving back to
> the community, this way I can work my way up to an MVP?
>
Answer lots of questions in Microsoft
newsgroups. Answer them well. Answer
them graciously. Never criticize Microsoft.
Always buy as much stuff from Microsoft
as possible.

But why do you want to be an "MVP"?
Do you realize that Microsoft doesn't pay
MVPs? If the Hoover company comes up with
a "Most Valauble Vacuumer" award will you
also pursue that? Doesn't it strike you as a
bit odd that you've decided to work for free
for one of the richest companies in the world,
in exchange for a chance of getting a rather
silly, made-up title that you can add to your
newsgroup posts? (After all, "MVP" won't mean
anything to anyone else. If you brag to your
friends that you're a Microsoft Most Valuable
Professional they're likely to feel sorry for you.)

Hopefully you at least own Microsoft stock, if
you're going to donate your efforts to them.

Bob
Mon Dec 18 00:56:27 CST 2006

Julio C. Delgado Jr. (DJ) wrote:
> I want to start giving back to the IT Community, and start helping
> out. I would appreciate if you guys could answer some of the below
> questions.
>
> 1. How do you guys read your newsgroup subscriptions? Software or
> Via Web? List which do you use.

Thunderbird


> 2. Which web portals do you recommend to use to read/respond to posts
> & blogs during lunch/break at work? (At work I cant access newsgroups
> or blogs via a program or nntp)

None. In my opinion you're better off without.


> 3. What program do you guys use for managing your blog subscriptions?
> Software or Via Web? List which do you use.

None.


> 4. How do you keep track of all the messages you've posted or replied
> too, this way you can follow-up on it, in case someone responds?

I simply don't.

I read the same newsgroups pretty consistently, so it would be hard to miss
any responses posted directly to mine.


> 5. Do you guys provide your email address in your posts? If you do,
> how do you handle protecting yourself from spam? If you dont, how
> does anyone ever get a hold of you, if needed?

Yes. Yahoogroups handles it for me. Anyone can reach me, they just have to
join this group first. In the >3.5 year history of this yahoo group, I have
allowed a total of exactly ZERO messages to go out through it, so it's not
like any potential correspondent has to worry about joining some chatty list
they don't want.


> 6. Out of curiosity, what email provider do you use, and what program
> do you use to read your emails?

I am my own provider.
I use a combination of Thunderbird, homebrew mail and news clients,
and Eudora Pro v3.


> 7. What do I need to do to make sure I get credit for giving back to
> the community, this way I can work my way up to an MVP?

If you have to ask, then you might not be on the right path.
If you force it, sometimes that will be detectable.

It's a little like zen enlightenment - actively seeking it
may very well prevent it from ever happening.


> 8. How else can I become part of the IT community and start giving
> back and networking? Any Ideas?

Do what you feel.
Empathize - when you read someone's request for help, think back to a time when
you could have benefited greatly from comparable help. If you received it,
now is the time to "pay it forward" and if you didn't, then now is the time to
save someone else from going through the same pain.

Also, remember there's a bigger audience - often the individual asking the specific
question is not the only one who could benefit from your answers. Sometimes it
pays to include additional information even if you're pretty sure the specific
person asking the specific question doesn't need that specific information.
Usually there are many more people reading that participating, and also the
newsgroups get archived in many places, and even old threads can help many people.



Bob
MS-MVP VB 2000-2006
--

Bob
Mon Dec 18 06:10:14 CST 2006

mayayana wrote:
> Answer lots of questions in Microsoft
> newsgroups. Answer them well. Answer
> them graciously.

Good start, but then:

> Never criticize Microsoft.
> Always buy as much stuff from Microsoft
> as possible.
>

BS and BS
I have met very few MVPs, myself included, who have never at some point
criticized MS, both in public (for an example, see the VB6 petition - my
name is on it and I was just awarded for my 3rd year) and during private
meetings with MS personnel.

Of course, if you are talking about unthinking, unwarranted criticism, then
that's another story.

--
Microsoft MVP - ASP/ASP.NET
Please reply to the newsgroup. This email account is my spam trap so I
don't check it very often. If you must reply off-line, then remove the
"NO SPAM"

mayayana
Mon Dec 18 08:08:51 CST 2006



> BS and BS
> I have met very few MVPs, myself included, who have never at some point
> criticized MS, both in public (for an example, see the VB6 petition - my
> name is on it and I was just awarded for my 3rd year) and during private
> meetings with MS personnel.
>
> Of course, if you are talking about unthinking, unwarranted criticism,
then
> that's another story.
>
Then again, "unwarranted" can have many
definitions ... and therein lies the rub. :)