Subject: Another dumb idea...

From: Martin Hamilton <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 12:58:00 +0000

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Rather than routing around the problem of having too many attendees
once they actually get to the IETF, how about nipping it in the bud
beforehand ?  For instance, asking would-be attendees some simple
technical questions which must be correctly answered in order to
proceed with registration ? :-)

Should be pretty easy to automate by soliciting questions from
volunteers (there seem to be a few people here...) and choosing say
five at random for an HTML form preceding the registration form.
Don't reveal the answers, just give a simple Walk/Don't Walk response
as the next step.

The truly determined could still work their way through - eventually, 
but I'm betting the process would put off a lot of the goers.  The 
doers shouldn't have any problems answering half a dozen simple 
technical questions...

Ciao!

Martin

PS I know, this has (at least) two faults :-

1) Your Pointy Haired Boss bullies you into giving answers out so
  they can register the whole of Marketing
2) Discriminates against non-technical types.  But should they be
  coming in the first place ?  <ducks>

It also assumes that the problem is having too many clueless (in a
technical sense :-) people wanting to come, as opposed to (say) too
many clueful people.  There isn't really a metric of cluefulness at
the moment, but there would be if a scheme like this was taken up!

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 09:59:08 -0500

> proceed with registration ? :-)

"What is your name?" "I am Arthur, King of the Britons."
"What is your quest?" "I seek the holy grail."
"What is your favorite color...."

Shades of Monty Python...
-- 
				Valdis Kletnieks
				Computer Systems Senior Engineer
				Virginia Tech

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 09:59:08 -0500

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From: Martin Hamilton <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 15:38:17 +0000

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[email-masked] writes:

| "What is your name?" "I am Arthur, King of the Britons."
| "What is your quest?" "I seek the holy grail."
| "What is your favorite color...."

Would go well with MTR's magic cookies in the Internet Drafts...

I was thinking about something along the lines of:

  The acronym 'TCP' is short for: (pick one)
    * Transfer Control Protocol
    * Transmission Coordination Program
    * Total Control Process
    * Transmission Control Protocol
    * Terminal Control Protocol
    * Terminally Cool People

;-)

Ciao!

Martin

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From: Martin Hamilton <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 15:38:17 +0000

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;-)

Ciao!

Martin