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Forum Posting Guidelines - Monthly Posting
Posted:
May 5, 1993 11:54 AM
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There have been a number of postings on geometry.forum, in particular,
that are probably better suited to other groups. I hope this article will
clarify the intended focus of each group, and give some examples of what
is and is not appropriate for each group. While this sort of thing is not
a major problem yet, as the number of postings on the Forum grows, it will
be important to keep to these guildelines so that people can be more
selective in their reading without worrying about missing something that
got posted somewhere else.
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geometry.announcements
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Postings here are information about lectures, announcements, and special
meetings concerning geometry. Also feel free to post comments on upcoming
events - if you know the speaker, for example, or if you saw an exhibit
and would recommend it. This is not the place to discuss the contents of
what happened at an actual lecture, however. And, despite the name of
this group, it's probably _not_ the place to 'announce' that someone has
proven the Riemann conjecture using Euclidean geometry. That would be
more appropriate in geometry.research.
When posting here, please use very descriptive subject lines - remember
that people all over the world have access to the Forum, so it matters
whether a lecture is in Berkeley, California, or Budapest, Hungary. The
subject line should include who or what the announcement is about, where,
and when (when applicable).
We would like to keep traffic in this group relatively low, so those
subscribed to the mailing lists won't be baraged by postings, and won't
miss something important.
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geometry.college
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This group is the place to discuss topics covered in college geometry,
problems appropriate for that level, and geometry education. There may be
some overlap with geometry.research on problems and topics, and with
geometry.pre-college on education issues. Feel free to 'cross post' (post
to more than one group), but only if you really feel the discussion would
be interesting to readers of all the groups to which you post.
Topics which would be appropriate for this group might be questions about
text book use in college geometry courses, problems that require some
advanced geometry knowledge, and discussions of goemetry course content
for students seeking secondary math certification. A posting here that
would be cross-posted to geometry.research could be "I am interested in
being a research geometer. Which books should I acquaint myself with,
and what particular areas of math, besides geometry, should I concentrate
on?" Discussions of manipulatives and teaching techniques to teach math
ed students could be cross-posted to geometry.pre-college. Content of
the high school geometry curriculum, however, probably isn't appropriate.
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geometry.forum
**************
This is the central group for the Geometry Forum. Postings include
introductory messages and important announcements about the Forum,
discussions of its progress, and eventually discussions about the Forum
software. This group is NOT a general geometry group. If you cannot
decide which group to post something in, DO NOT just put it here. Think
carefully about your posting. Who would be interested in it? Who do you
want feedback from? Don't just post it here because you assume everyone
reads this group. Cross-post it if you feel it addresses the interests
of more than one groups of readers.
Topics found here will include items available on the Forum and its FTP
site, suggestions from users as to how to improve the Forum as a whole,
questions about finding items or helping others to read the Forum, and
discussions of our software.
Items that ought to be posted elsewhere include, well, everything else.
For example, the discussion about drawing programs could have taken place
on geometry.pre-college and geometry.college, or even geometry.research.
(When an article is originally posted to two different groups, all
follow-up articles will generally be posted in both places as well, so no
one will miss out).
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geometry.institutes
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This group includes planning for and information about geometry
institutes, such as the Regional Geometry Institute at Smith College this
summer.
It may also serve as an electronic meeting place for institute
participants, as well as a way to involve persons who cannot attend an
institute in person.
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geometry.pre-college
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This is the place to discuss subject matter in high school and middle
school (and earlier!) geometry curricula, teaching geometry classes, new
software and texts, problems for students, and supplementary materials
such as videos and manipulatives. It's also the place for geometry
students to talk about geometry with their peers.
Postings could include discussions of high school textbooks, good
reference materials to supplement the text, how to work in other
supplementary materials and still meet course requirements, or suggestions
for redesigning the curriculum at the pre-college level. Also, using
drawing programs within the given curriculum, how easy the programs are to
learn to use effectively, and how they might be improved for the pre-
college environment.
Postings that _might_ be appropriate, but should be cross-posted to
geometry.college, would be discussions of teacher-training and college
course content for aspiring geometry teachers.
Postings that are not appropriate for this group might be drawing programs
as an aid for the research geometer, good topology texts, and discussions
of new research finds.
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geometry.puzzles
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Postings here are interesting problems and conundrums that require only a
knowledge of elementary geometry. Also, discussions of these problems and
solutions.
If you are posting a solution to a previously posted problem, please edit
the subject line to indicate this. There will be some discussion of
problems which people would like to read, but they might not want to see a
solution until they take a crack at it. Also, if you have a gem of a
problem that requires a bit of 'advanced' knowledge, it may be posted, but
please say so in the subject line. This includes most non-Euclidean and
projective geometries. Remember that most high school geometry courses
don't consider the possiblitity that Euclid's parallel postulate might be
unneccesary or even not hold. We would like this particular board to be
somewhere that high school students aren't afraid to frolic.
On occasion we may run 'contests' on this group, and ask users to email
their solutions to us or the sponsoring individual. Please do not post
solutions in these cases until the 'results' of the contest are posted.
Also, keep in mind that there are many different ways to solve any given
puzzle, so feel free to post your solution, particularly if it differs
from an already-posted one. If you can, say why your approach is
different, and why you decided to take that direction. Thirty postings
saying "Yea, that's how I got the answer too!" are unnecessary, and will
warrant late night email from the Forum Police. :-)
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geometry.research
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Postings here will be research announcements, seminars, reviews, and
abstracts of papers and discussions of same. It is also the place to
discuss topics in geometry research (big surprise there, eh?).
This probably _is_ just the place to announce and discuss the solving of
the Riemann conjecture using Euclidean geometry.
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So there you have it. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to
email me. Or even better, post them to geometry.forum. These are just
guidelines. We can't begin to know how folks really will use the Forum,
and what sorts of issues and discussions will come up on the various
groups. This posting is just trying to draw some thick grey lines between
things.
Annie Fetter | The Geometry Forum | Voice: 215 328-8225
Project Coordinator | Swarthmore College | 800 756-7823
annie@forum.swarthmore.edu | Swarthmore PA 19081 | Fax: 215 328-7824
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