Conference bookie::movies

    Guidelines: First, please note that this conference resides on my
    workstation, with which I am expected to do work. I'm going to ask that
    people avoid referencing the conference between roughly 8-12 and 1-5,
    Eastern time; if too many links start showing up while I'm working, I
    will deny access during those hours, but I hope that won't be
    necessary.
    
    Second, I don't know how much demand this conference will put on my
    system even after hours; if it proves excessive, I'll have to put the
    conference up for adoption. (And if anyone out there happens to have
    the resources to host it, feel free to offer to adopt it at any time; I
    just want there to _be_ a MOVIES conference, I don't necessarily have
    to own it!)
    
    For the rest, try to keep the discussions movie-related. I don't want
    to police anything, but if discussions veer towards areas that really
    belong in some other conference, I may say so, and if I'm in a bad mood
    that day I may get positively testy. [Yeah, yeah, you're all shaking in
    your shoes, I can tell. ;-)] Trivia-type things should really go in the
    FOO::TRIVIA conference, private conversations should go to mail, and
    "me, too" or "it stunk"-type notes should be avoided unless you can add
    a little value to your opinion.
    
    For those who comment on movies, please avoid giving away endings, big
    surprises, etc., unless you shield them in spoiler warnings first. (Use
    your judgement here. Discussions of new films will need more spoiler
    alerts than discussions of old classics, but even for the latter, try
    not to put "The butler did it!" in the title.) I'm not going to spend a
    lot of time policing this, but if I notice an egregious spoiler that
    isn't suitably flagged, I will set the note hidden and ask the author
    to fix it.
    
    For those of you who really, REALLY hate knowing about films before
    seeing them, read with caution; it's hard to discuss films without
    giving *something* away, and it's even harder to guess what sort of
    things constitute spoilers for others. You might want to skip any notes
    dealing with films you're planning to see but haven't yet; you can mark
    them and come back to them later.
    
    OK, I guess that's all for now. The balcony is open.
    
    -b

    Oh, yeah. I'd prefer to be a hands-off sort of moderator, but if for
    any reason I feel a need to move, hide, or delete a note, I'll either
    ask the owner to do it or notify the owner that it's been done and why.
    The text of any deleted notes will be returned to the owner. If the
    action affects a "string in progress," I'll post an explanation in the
    conference as well, such as "Note x.y was set hidden by the moderator
    because the author misspelled the director's name and it offended me
    personally." [No, no, I'm just kidding. I might hide something for
    being a gratuitous spoiler or a death threat, that sort of thing...]
    
    -b

    Short-term or limited-interest requests/postings:
    
    When posting information that will soon be out of date, such as
    movie schedules at specific theaters, or when requesting information
    for personal use (as opposed to general-interest stuff), there are a
    few steps you can take that will accomplish your purpose while
    preventing the dreaded "conference clutter":
    
    o Create a new topic with your posting or request. Include geographic
    location, if relevant - remember, this conference has world-wide
    readership. 
    
    o Include a comment indicating that this is a "for information only"
    topic. If you're requesting personal information, ask that people reply
    by mail, not in the conference.
    
    o Set the note NOWRITE. (Authors of any note can set their own note
    nowrite, preventing people from replying to it. If you intend to delete
    the note when the information is no longer useful, this prevents
    "orphaned" replies, which the moderator would then have to tidy up.)
    
    o When you've received the information, or when the note is no longer
    timely, delete it. [Authors may delete their own notes at any time, as
    long as they are logged in to the same node or cluster from which they
    wrote it.]
    
    These are just housekeeping guidelines. If you want to start a topic
    discussing a certain theater's upcoming schedules, go right ahead. Just
    remember, it'll mean that many more notes to search through when you're
    trying to find that devastatingly brilliant review you wrote on
    "Eraserhead." ;-)
    
    -b

How to you get a form feed/spoiler warning in a note. I'm on a PC and the
keypad doesn't work correctly, so I'd prefer a technique that doesn't use it.

Regards
Barry

  The traditional spoiler warning is a control L which is a form feed. That is,
hold down the CTL key and type "L". 

  Of course on some editors, ^L means something special and is not a usable
character. For example, in ULTRIX/OSF VI, it means "refresh the screen". In
those editors, check for a way to insert special characters.

  In ASCII, Ctl L is 12 decimal, "0C" in HEX, if that helps.

  If there is no way to insert a Ctl L, then just leave the word SPOILER
followed by over a screen full of blank lines.

  George

>   Of course on some editors, ^L means something special and is not a usable
> character. For example, in ULTRIX/OSF VI, it means "refresh the screen". In
> those editors, check for a way to insert special characters.

	Don't however that "vi" is a mode sensitive editor.  Control/L
	only has meaning in command mode, in insert mode, Control/L is
	simply inserted into the buffer.

	For example, I'm using decnotes on an Alpha/OSF1 system composing
	this note using vi, here's a spolier warning:


	Whola :-)  Just call me the next Hudinni :-))

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
re                       <<< Note 1.6 by 25415::MAIEWSKI >>>

 > The traditional spoiler warning is a control L which is a form feed. That is,
>hold down the CTL key and type "L". 

  George

  Thanks, that's what I was looking for, just had a brain spasm (monday morning).
Reply 6.39 (the crying game) should be spoilerized now.

Regards
Barry

    FYI, I've returned a couple of replies to their authors because the
    conversation had turned into a discussion of personal moods and
    motives. While some amount of quipping is OK with me, I hate to see it
    turn sour; yet the nature of notes is such that sometimes the tone of a
    comment may come across differently than intended. If - or should I say
    "when"? - misunderstandings do occur, I'd appreciate it if people take
    it to mail rather than posting it here.
    
    Thanks,
    -b-the-moderator

    Handy hint: The author of a note or a reply can change the title by
    using the SET NOTE/TITLE command, as in:
    
    	Notes> SET NOTE/TITLE="The Cemetery Club" 252.0
    
    [If you're currently reading the note whose title you want to change,
    you don't have to enter the note number.]
    
    This only works if you're noting from the same node/username that you
    used to enter the note in the first place; if you've changed nodes,
    you'll have to ask your friendly local moderator to change the title.
    [My fees are very reasonable. ;-)]
    
    -b

It's perhaps an unfortunate aspect of NOTES that the FORM FEED character
is used to delimit screens and is thus used to hide spoilers.

With that said, I'd like to ask a favor of noters who delimit spoilers.

  > Please limit your use of spoiler delimiters to a single form feed. <

I often extract a string about a movie only after I've seen the movie.
I then print the whole thing to digest at liesure (and take home to share 
with my wife).

Multiple form feeds wastes a lot of paper (even when printed two-up duplex).
Use of double form feeds seems fairly common, and examples of multiple
cascaded form feeds exist.  Also, it seems that there are instances 
of spoilers-within-spoilers that have FFs separating each section 
of the spoiler.  This might be reconsidered as well.

Maybe a mild suggestion to this effect can be part of the official conference
guidelines?

- tom]

PS:  I can and do edit the extracts that I find to have lots of FFs,
but that's an extra step too.

    Suggestion: If you spot a note that you believe contains a spoiler
    without a suitable spoiler warning, the quickest way to get it fixed or
    hidden is to send mail to the author of the note and to the conference
    moderators. [Ideally, the author will fix it before I have to!]
    
    For those who receive mail about spoilers in their notes: even if you
    don't think that your note spoils anything, please try to err on the
    side of too much caution rather than too little. All it takes, usually,
    is a warning and form-feed, or sometimes a minor rewording.
    
    And of course, a general caveat: it is impossible to discuss movies at
    any length without giving away *something*, even if it's only the most
    obvious plot elements, or things that have been widely shown in
    previews, etc. If you don't like hearing anything at all about a movie
    before seeing it, read this file with caution, and be quick on the
    next-unseen key whenever you hit a movie you haven't seen yet. ;-)
    
    thx,
    -b-the-moderator

    (Gee, I thought I'd put something in here about this. Oh, well.)

    Conference policy regarding "wanted" or "for sale" topics is as
    follows:

    o Do the right thing. [Wasn't that a corporate guideline at one time?
    Hmmm.] By this I mean, don't go breaking the law, infringing on
    copyrights, or asking others to do so.

    This means that a request for "a copy of <Mumble>" must be a request to
    borrow or purchase a legitimate copy of same, or a request for sources
    from which <Mumble> might be borrowed or bought. [If somebody posts "I
    really want to see <Mumble>," a helpful noter might invite the person
    over some night when <Mumble> is being aired on his or her local cable
    channel; I'd expect this sort of thing to be taken up via mail, unless
    the helpful one wants to start a sort of MOVIES "open house". ;-)]

    If you're definitely looking for a tape to purchase, please specify
    that in your note, to avoid any confusion between "wanted to buy" and
    "wanted to watch". Sometimes movies that aren't available on video for
    sale _may_ be available for rent (see topic 5 for various sources;
    Facets has some rental-only tapes which, for one reason or another
    aren't for sale). And, of course, hard-to-find movies sometimes show up
    at film festivals, etc.

    o Pointers to generally-useful sources should be added to topic 5.
    Replies to a specific request, such as "I happen to have a copy of
    <Mumble> that I don't want to keep," should go directly via E-mail (or
    phone) to the person making the request.

    o Once outdated and/or successful, "wanted" or "for sale" topics should be
    deleted by their authors. If not, the moderators may opt to delete them
    whenever they're in the mood for a little housecleaning.
    
    And we thank you for your support.
    
    -b-the-moderator

>     	Sorry I meant to put this notes # 3 as requested Didn't mean
>     to duplicate this. My apology****************

	I know what this conference is missing, a topic containing a
	mini course of how to use NOTES effectively :-)

	One, if you want to delete you own note, you do *not* have
	to be a moderator, you can use the command:

		Notes> DELETE NOTE

	If you simply misplaced your note (such as doing a WRITE instead
	of REPLY command, or vice versa), you can use the command:

		Notes> MODIFY NOTE/NOTE=new-topic-number-here

	You can also get help on any of these commands by simply using
	the HELP command, ex:

		Notes> HELP

    ...for turning into a pumpkin. So here are the gory details: after 
    more than 15 years, I'm leaving Digital. I'll be starting a new job in
    a couple of weeks, and my last day at DEC will be October 6. [Long,
    goopy note about my departure, etc. is posted in SSDEVO::WHOAREYOU;
    finding the topic is left as an exercise for the reader.]
    
    The MOVIES conference will be moving at some point in the next few
    days; further information will be posted when the move is imminent.
    So watch the skies! Er, the notices!
    
    -b-the-short-timer/moderator

Note 3 is now the repository for notes about wanting to find videos,
soundtracks, and the like.

-- Nina

	This is a reminder to those that get confused that this is not
	the SoapBox conference.  Please keep the personal chit-chat
	with your SoapBox friends to the SoapBox conference, and keep
	focused on this conference's charter, ie. Movies.

	Also this is a reminder that one of the reasons for this conference
	is to not only to discuss movies you've seen, etc, but to read
	other noters reviews *before* having seen the movie (just as
	one would watch "Siskel & Ebert" or "Sneak Previews") in order
	to decide on whether to go see the movie or not.  As such, the
	portions of discussions/reviews that contains spoiler information
	(ie. such as giving away the ending, or the secret in "The
	Crying Game") should be hidden behind a "spoiler warning".  See
	topic 910 for more information.

	Thanks for helping to keep the moderators sane!