Conference quark::human_relations-v1

    I follow about 30 conferences, but most of them are "work-related".
    I don't constantly read NOTES - I have a batch job that updates
    my directories (I use four classes of conferences), and some I skip
    reading until later.  I manage to do my job AND have a social life.
    I consider the help I offer through notesfiles to be part of my
    job, and this is recognized by my management.
    
    What many people do, though, is use a batch command file to extract
    notes from conferences at night, and either print them out or
    send them via MAIL.  Especially if you're at the end of a very
    slow net link, this is much better than trying to follow multiple
    conferences interactively.
    
    Admittedly, there are some people who seem to do nothing BUT note.
    
    Some MORE conferences for you to look at for help in organizing
    your noting:
    	WARLRD::VAXNOTES_INTRO	- help on using VAX NOTES
    	DECWET::ENOTES		- tool for batch extraction of notes
    
    Noting CAN be addicting.  What with the popularity of the VAX NOTES
    product among our customers, I wonder if Digital may need to fund
    a "Noters Anonymous" organization to help hopelessly addicted noters...
    I'm sure we could start them off with a few of our own!
    
    					Steve

    A very thought provoking question.  I just counted my notebook
    entries - 110 (for reference, there are 16 per screen).  Most
    are either technical or work related; however, that still leaves
    plenty of room for personal interest conferences.
    
    One way to categorize the conferences in my notebook is by the
    frequency I read them:

    		(a) periodically during the day    
    		(b) daily (usually while eating breakfast or in the
    		    evening after work or dinner)
    		(c) weekly (usually during the weekend)
    		(d) when I'm bored or waiting for something
    		(e) when the unseen count gets too high
    		(f) almost never
    
    Some conferences in the "almost never" category are idle 99% of
    the time; others I only open when I'm really bored (or too lazy
    to work).  I rarely write notes, even when I have something to say,
    simply because I don't have the time.
    
    When do I find the time to read notes?  Before work; occasionally
    during the day as a break from whatever I'm doing; during lunch;
    after work; before, during, and after dinner; weekends; when I
    can't sleep.  I guess that about covers it.  Figuring out how much
    of a social life I have is left as an exercise for the reader.
    
    And, yes, I do have a real job.  Noting does take away from the
    time I might otherwise spend doing "real" work.  On the other hand,
    I feel noting helps me do a better job.  Not only am I exposed to
    a great deal of information I might not otherwise be aware of, but
    noting is a change of pace which helps keep me from getting bored
    (or even burned out) nearly as fast as I would without the diversion.
    
    The issue of noting vs. social life is an interesting one.  Of the
    people who spend a significant amount of their non-working hours
    noting, I wonder how many allow noting to impact their social life,
    and how many note because they have no social life?
    
    If this topic gets a lot of replies, perhaps we can write an sequel
    to _The Hacker Papers_. 8-)
    
    	- Jerry

|    
|    Noting CAN be addicting.  What with the popularity of the VAX NOTES
|    product among our customers, I wonder if Digital may need to fund
|    a "Noters Anonymous" organization to help hopelessly addicted noters...
|    I'm sure we could start them off with a few of our own!
|    

Good idea, Steve.   I know, we could have a NOTERS_ANONYMOUS conference.....
(-:
	Nigel

    re .2
    
    Isn't the contact we have with other DECies in Notes conferences
    a social life?  Does a social life have to involve face to face
    contact?
    
    I'd be interested in hearing other people's definition of a "social
    life" (I have one by my definition, but someone else might consider
    my social life a dead issue).  Another topic?
    
    G

    I track about 40 notesfiles, moderate 5, (gave some up) and actively
    participate in about 10.
    
    I've made a bunch of friends through notes. In fact I'm presently
    staying with some folks I met through notes.
    
    All I can say is, it's fun!

re: .4

I was thinking about how the social aspects of noting relate to, or
possibly affect, the traditional (dare I call them "normal") forms
of social interaction.  I'm especially interested in cases where noting
is a significant portion of one's social life.

I guess this tangent doesn't belong here, but rather in topic 195 (_The
Social Life_) or topic 27 (_Close Encounters of the Terminal Kind_).

We return you to your regularly scheduled note.

	- Jerry

 Keeping up with notes conferences can be a real problem, especially as
one's notebook can grow by leaps and bounds.
 One "trick" that I use is to go through my notebook every couple of months
and "clean out" any notes conferences of which I have grown tired or no longer
need to follow. 
 A "social" notes conference becomes a candidate for "cleaning" when the signal
to noise ratio becomes unacceptably low (people flaming at each other
constantly, rather than exchaning information), or when the set of contributors
becomes too predictable in their responses. For example, I've stopped tracking
the VIDEO notes conference; I didn't want to sit through another round of the
same old {Beta vs VHS, Fisher vs Sony, Deluxe vs anywhere} debate with the same
tiring people presenting the same tired arguments in the same inane manner. 
Likewise, I've dropped out of the WOMANOTES _and_ MENNOTES conferences because
the same people were presenting the same arguments in the same manner in both
files. Hell, I used to get confused as to which file I was reading. I often get
the feeling that everyone is so busy talking that no-one is listening. Maybe we
should just abolish non-work-related conferences and go back to working for
Digital (-: . 
 On work related conferences, my tolerance for "flaming" is higher because the 
capability of gaining some useful informaton is higher. I'll delete notes 
conferences from my "work" notebook if the file has become inactive, or if my
own work has moved me away from that product/topic of interest. I also track
a number of conferences (such as EASYNET_KITS and EASYNET_CONFERENCES) which I
do not regularly read or update, but which I use as references when I need to 
find something.
 This keeps my "active notebook" (work and social files which I track 
regularly) down to about 10, although that 10 may be viewed as a working set,
the contents of which will vary over time.

			Nigel

re: .0

Well, let's see.  I have 8 Classes in my Notebook, each with
about 10-12 Conferences in it, and maybe for 3 of those 10-12 I
keep up with the Unseen count whereas I just browse through the
others.  3 of the 8 Classes are work-related, the other 5 are not.

The work-related Conferences get read during work hours mostly,
although occasionally on my own time.  The other Conferences get
read during lunch break or at night.

Is Noting a substitute for a social life?  I dunno.  Is letter-
writing a substitute for visiting?  Noting kind of harks back
(for me) to the extensive written correspondence that most well-
educated people used to participate in from the time that
literacy became widespread up through the early part of this
century.  It's just a different type of socializing, not really
a substitute for socializing per se.  It also reminds me of the
rural party line telephone days when a bunch of people could
pick up the phone and either yak or just listen in as the mood
struck them.

We take the automobile so much for granted nowadays that we
forget that there were times when "face-to-face" socializing
was not always the norm.  With Notes I get a vivid reminder of
that, since I can't just hop in my car and visit some of my
fellow correspondents/kindred spirits in Colorado Springs!  

						paul

     Peggy,

          Can quite understand.  Since I don't have access to the
     network  during  the day, I have to maintain contact only in
     the evenings and weekends.  While living on my boat and  not
     having much else to do, I was able to maintain contact quite
     easily.  As of late I'm teaching two classes and  trying  to
     take  another while trying to find time for building my sail
     boat.  As of late, I've become a read only  noter  and  only
     once  in a great while.  Do wish I could be more active as I
     miss noting but since my  personal  activities  come  before
     work  during  my  own time, we generally don't even turn the
     computer on when we get home.  12 hours a day is enough  and
     I  save it for the weekends when it's too cold to work on my
     boat.  I guess it is just setting priorities.  Personal life
     comes first!

     Waiting for the spring sun,

     P.S.  hope you find a partner for your sailing membership.

     Lee

    I think notes reading and the quantity also has to do with the *phase*
    you are in in your life.  Exactly a year ago, I was in a relationship,
    that was ending, I was extremely down, and turned to notes to fill
    the void in my life.  I notice that people who seem to have a void
    in their life, read (and write?) to cover that void.  This void
    can be everything to shyness, to being in a boring job, to just
    plain being bored because you don't have the power (or will) to
    start an outside social life.  All too often people have said to
    me, I'm bored, I don't have anything to do, and I ask them, why
    not take a college course... I could write a book on all the excuses
    they come up with REAL fast.
    
    I found that last year, when everything was going wrong with my life,
    I wrote in ALL the conferences, read all the notes, even had two
    phones put in so I could be logged in all day, and still be connected
    with the outside world.
    
    Now, I am in a relationship that is *right*, and I hardly have time
    to note.  Since I am happy with my personal life (and getting happier
    with my professional life), I notice that I hardly log in when home,
    and normally do when I have forgotten to get a new book to read,
    or my hands are tired from some craft.  Oh, I try to ocassionally
    keep up with friendly conferences, but I now go months before I
    get my unseen count to all zeros, and last year, it was everynight
    they were zero'd.
    
    I do use BATCH jobs now, and am more active in technical conferences,
    which enable my knowledge to grow, and allows me to enhance the
    knowledge of others.
    
    Gale