Hello too!

[abigailnus]

<waves nervously>

Hi all.  Yet another new member here.  Like Derannimer, I'd like to say thank you for 
being asked to join.  I've spent the afternoon knocking around the place, seeing the 
sights, and can I just say how impressed I am by the Whole Enchilada?  That's quite an 
accomplishment, guys.

My academic semester will be ending soon, and it'll be followed by a month of finals (and 
OOP, of course) so I'm not going to be up to much before the end of July.  I do have a 
few questions, however:

1. I'm a bit fuzzy about the difference between a Fantastic Posts essay and a Hypothetic 
Alley essay.  How exactly do you determine whether a discussion will be covered by a FP 
or HA?  For example, if we were writing a Harry FP, where would Stoned!Harry go?  

2. I've been looking around the FP, and I notice a great variety in how the articles are set 
up.  Some essays are bullet points with relevant message numbers, and others present 
arguments in condensed forms while pointing to representative messages of those 
arguments.  Is there a preferred form?

3. When writing an FP, how do you decide which topics go in?  Is one person responsible 
for an FP from beginning to end, or is the work parceled out?

4. The biggie: what is the purpose of Fantastic Posts?  Are they meant to serve as a 
stepping stones for newbies, providing an alternative to Yahoo!mort's dreaded search 
feature, or are the essays supposed to be 'position papers', providing a condensed 
analysis of their topic for whoever might be interested?  I suspect the answer is both, and 
also some other things which I haven't thought of.

5. Brainwave: what about Nimbus?  I don't know if this is going to happen, but back 
when Nimbus was first announced, it was suggested that summaries of papers and 
panels would be posted on the Nimbus website.  Is there any plan to add the Nimbus 
papers to FP, as a segment of their own or as addendums to relevant topics?  Or am I 
thinking too far ahead?

Well, I have to go - today is Student Day, a 36-hour-long extravaganza, the origins of 
which are lost in the mists of time.  Mostly it's an excuse for corporate sponsors to 
harangue a captive audience, but they're bringing in some good bands.

Glad to be here,
Abigail