THE FAQ IS COMING TODAY!

[John A Swartz]

O.K., it's been so quiet at the office that I managed to complete Version
2.0 of the BOC FAQ, and rather than waiting until next week (as I
originally planned), I'm sending it to BOC-L today.  So, since the date
on the FAQ actually says "September 5th", everyone here might get it
a little earlier.  Here's some relevant info for those of you who weren't
on the list back about 7 months ago (or, in case you've forgotten):

1.  The FAQ is pretty big -- over 200K of data for you technical folks.
In an effort to hopefully not crash anybody's mailservers, I've split
the FAQ into 7 (seven seven seven . . .  yeah I know, I've done that
before, sorry, but I couldn't resist) parts of 32K or less.  Each part
still makes for a fairly big mail message, but hopefully everyone will
get everything.  NOTE:  If you don't see in the mail message words to
the effect of "End of Part X of 7", then you didn't get the whole part
in the mail message.  I don't want to have to split the FAQ into something
like 50 sections, so if anyone has any problems, there are other ways to
get the FAQ (see below).

2.  Please Note:  While the FAQ is in 7 parts, it is not 7 FAQS.  My point
is that "The FAQ" is an entity of one, and if you happen to download it,
print it, send it to a friend (all of which is perfectly fine with me),
please make sure you have the ENTIRE FAQ - from the picture of the BOC
symbol all the way to the copyright and disclaimer notice.  Maybe I'me
just paranoid, but I always have this fear that if you break something
down into pieces, one or more of those pieces tend to get lost.

3.  As previously mentioned, comments are always welcome and desired.
There will be a new version later this year, so if I've made any mistakes,
point 'em out to me so I can get them fixed in Version 2.1  Rather than
post to the list (well, if you really want to . . .), send comments
directly to me:  John_Swartz at iegate.mitre.org

4.  A complete (1 part) version of the FAQ will also be sent to the BOC-L
archives.  For those of you with web pages, this version is preferable to
use on your pages as people will be able to download the whole thing
all at once rather than in 7 parts.  So, you may wish to wait until the
FAQ shows up in the archives (probably next week, depending on when our
humble moderator can get to it -- after all, he's been fairly busy lately
moving our server) before you add it to your page.  But, I'll leave that
stuff to folks who create web pages.

5.  Also going to the archives will be the lyrics to *Trepanation*.
Thanks again to Deb and Al for allowing me to reproduce them for the
BOC-L folks.

6.  If I can get to it next week, I'll send the FAQ to a few of the
internet newsgroups (like "alt.rock-n-roll" and "alt.rock-n-roll.classic")
Unfortunately, at the moment, I can't access "alt.music.blueoystercult".

7.  Without trying to repeat the credits in the FAQ, there are many to
be thanked for helping me with this project.  Many folks on BOC-L,
especially alot of the "old-timers" helped provide info (no offense to
some of the newcomers intended - had you been around when the project
was started, I'm sure you would've provided more info as well).  I got
bits and pieces of info from Buck and Eric, as well as Joe Bouchard, and
former Soft White Underbelly vocalist Les Braunstein saw the previous
version and provided some info.  Al Bouchard and Deb Frost have provided
me lots of great info (and helped clarify alot of incorrect info that I
had previously), and have given me some great music to listen to while
I work on the FAQ.  And finally, Bolle Gregmar of the fanclub has spent
many hours over the phone giving me facts and corrections (we went
through it page by page).  THANKS TO ALL -- I couldn't have done it
without you.

8.  As future versions become necessary (I already mentioned version 2.1),
I will work on them.  At this point though, aside from a few ideas I
have about expanding the FAQ to include a few other things, the FAQ
won't fundamentally change in the future (just updated info, and a few
extra things).

O.K., that oughta do it.  I'm going to send the FAQ to the archive site,
and then I'll post the 7 sections to BOC-L.  Those of you who haven't
taken off for the long weekend may see it in an hour or so.

Have a great and safe Labor Day weekend to all and

"Good Health To You",

John

Final note:  The filename for the FAQ in the archive site, is:
BOC_FAQ-2_0.txt