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<p id="pageTitle">Frequently Asked Questions</p>

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<div class="faq">
	<ol>
		<li><a href="#self">Hey, the service has just been launched. How can be there any questions?</a></li>
		<li><a href="#nologin">Why can't I login?</a></li>
		<!--<li><a href="#techo">I have some other technical problem with the site</a></li>-->
		<li><a href="#howtolink">Can I link to a specific Module's page in the forum?</a></li>
		<li><a href="#machine">I am a machine, do you have something for me too?</a></li>
		<li><a href="#why">Why do I need this? We already have our mailing list!</a></li>
		<li><a href="#whyweb">OK, but why web forum? Why not a mailing list with topics?</a></li>
		<li><a href="#perlmonks">So what about Perl Monks? That is a web forum!</a></li>
		<li><a href="#notify">Can I get notified when a new post arrives?</a></li>
	</ol>
<hr />
<dl>
	<dt><a name="self">Hey, the service has just been launched. How can be there any questions?</a></dt>
	<dd>I talk to myself and frequently ask questions... :-)</dd>
	<dt><a name="nologin">Why can't I login?</a></dt>
	<dd>
	    Don't know. Send a note to <a href="mailto:gabor@pti.co.il">Gabor Szabo</a> with your
		username, I might be able to help.
	</dd>
	<!--
	<dt><a name="techo">I have some other technical problem with the site</a></dt>
	<dd>If you have technical problems please contact <a href="mailto:gabor@pti.co.il">Gabor Szabo</a></dd>
	-->
	<dt><a name="howtolink">Can I link to a specific Module's page in the forum?</a></dt>
	<dd>
		To link to the forum of a specific distribution you can link to:<br />
		http://www.cpanforum.com/dist/Package-Name<br />
	</dd>
	<dt><a name="machine">I am a machine, do you have something for me too?</a></dt>
	<dd>
		Sure, we like machines. Currently you can get the following RSS feeds:
		<ul>
			<li> http://www.cpanforum.com/rss/all 10 latest posts</li>
			<li> http://www.cpanforum.com/rss/dist/Distro-Name 10 latest posts in distro</li>
		</ul>
	</dd>
	<dt><a name="why">Why do I need this? We already have our mailing list!</a></dt>
	<dd>
		Of course the established distribtions already have their mailing lists. 
		This means 100-200 maybe even 500 distributions. But there are over 7000 distributions on CPAN. 
		Even if we say that half of them don't need any kind of mailing list or forum and should not be 
		there anyway it still leaves more than
		3000 distributions that could do with a some kind of a forum.
		<br />
		You can also look at it from the other side. Someone who uses 30-50 modules on a regular basis, 
		does s/he need to subscribe to 30-50 mailing lists? That's a nightmare.
		What if I just want to ask one question about a module and I'd like to ask the most knowledgeable 
		about this module? Should I subscribe to a mailing list and then unsubscribe from it after a 
		few days?
		<br />
		On this forum people can have one centrally managed subscription and discuss all the modules they
		use. Their mail boxes won't be flooded by messages (unless they really want it) and they can 
		selectively view the discussions.
	</dd>
	<dt><a name="whyweb">OK, but why web forum? Why not a mailing list with topics or a news group?</a></dt>
	<dd>
		Although there are mailing lists that could be used to manage 3-6000 different subgroups, 
		in my experience most people won't use them, for various reasons:
		<br />
		E-mail lists:
		<ul>
			<li> They don't know how to subscribe</li>
			<li> They want to send HTML messages while most of the heavy users don't like that</li>
			<li> People are afraid that their mail box will be filled with unnecessary messages or SPAM, 
				or viruses</li>
			<li> People are afraid that they won't be able to unsubscribe.</li>
		</ul>
		News groups:
		<ul>
			<li> That might be good as well but it seems HTTP is a bit more popular than NNTP.</li>
		</ul>
		Web forums:
		<ul>
			<li> People are usually much more familiar with web forums than either e-mail lists or news groups</li>
			<li> This is pull technology, they visit when they want.</li>
			<li> They don't visit when the don't want.</li>
		</ul>
	</dd>
	<dt><a name="perlmonks">So what about Perl Monks? That is a web forum!</a></dt>
	<dd>
		<a href="http://www.perlmonks.org/">Perl Monks</a> emphasizes free association
		and it is a more general Perl web site.<br /> 
		CPAN::Forum provide module categorizations.<br />
		You can find me on PerlMonks as <a href="http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=415035">SZABGAB</a>.<br/>
		There was a thread on Perl Monks with a 
		<a href="http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=196112">
		similar idea</a> but appearently without implementation.<br />
		It is a nice discussion though.
	</dd>
	<dt><a name="notify">Can I get notified when a new post arrives?</a></dt>
	<dd>
		Yes, you can subscribe to e-mail alerts for each distribution. You have 3 options:
		<ol>
			<li> All messages - you get notification about every message sent to this group </li>
			<li> Thread starters - Whenever someone starts a new thread you get a notification.
				On subsequent posts to the same thread you don't get any message.</li>
			<li> Followups - You get all the messages sent to a certain thread that you have participated
				in. These won't necessarily be responses tou your message but will be in the same thread
				so presumably you are somewhat interested.</li>
		</ol>
		When looking at the page of each module (/dist/Module-Name) you'll see a link to configure
		the notification level for that module. By default you don't get any mail. When you want to change
		your subscription you can do it from <a href="/mypan/">MyPAN</a>
	</dd>
</dl>
</div>
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