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\author{David Golombek}
\title{The Zephyr Help Instance:\\
An Analysis of its Inner Workings}
\date{\today}
\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}

The help instance, a real-time chat channel run over zephyr at MIT,
provides a forum for users to ask questions, and others to answer
them.  No formal rules govern it's usage, nor do any rewards go to
those who answer questions.  Nonetheless, the help instance has been
heavily used for the last 7 years, answering many
questions for many users.  This paper explores reasons the help
instance has existed for so long, and why people remain active on it
despite the other pressures of the MIT environment.  It concludes that
the computer oriented organizations and social groups on Athena
provide a friendly atmosphere that promotes continued use of the
instance by people no longer receiving benefits from it.

\end{abstract}

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\section{Introduction}

The ability of MIT students to converse in real-time with other MIT
students via Zephyr has formed the basis for an electronic community.
Zephyr\cite{Zephyr} allows individuals to send
messages (zephyrgrams) to ``instances'', groups of individuals whom
have specified a desire to hear all messages sent to that instance
(this is called subscribing to an instance).  Communication is performed in
real-time, and the message appears 
automatically on all subscriber's screens.  One particular instance,
named the help instance, is used as a forum for users of
Athena\footnote{Athena is the MIT computer system, consisting of
several thousand networked workstations, running the X Window system.
All MIT undergraduates and graduates have accounts, and use Athena
heavily to complete assignments} to ask questions of all types.
Although many of these questions focus around computers, due to the
nature of the medium, other questions, from grammar to foreign
languages are equally welcome.  Other students answer questions that
they know the answers to, or contribute what knowledge they have.

The help instance is staffed only by students who are on-line and who
are listening to the instance.  Students who answer questions receive
no benefits, beyond the thanks (sometimes) of those whose questions
they have answered.  Far more students ask questions than answer, but
a very high percentage of questions are eventually answered, even if
the asker has to wait for a few hours or days to ask again, when
different people are on-line.  The backgrounds of the people on the
help instance are very diverse, as are their abilities, ranging from
inexperienced freshmen to staff with decades of practice in the real
world.  It is this wide range of backgrounds that nearly guarantees
answers to all questions.

In this paper, I will examine the success of the help instance, why it
has survived for so long, and why people remain active for as long as
they do.  In particular, many of the very knowledgeable individuals have
passed the point of marginal return, where the effort the put into
answering questions exceeds the amount of knowledge that they are
getting back.  Nor are there other rewards to those who answer
questions, beyond the gratitude of those they help, whom they possibly
have never met.  I present two models to explain success of the help instance,
the Knowledge Based Hierarchy, and Student Groups, and an evaluation
of each.


\section{History of the Help Instance}

The help instance was formed not long after zephyr itself was
released.  It was initially used by a fairly small group of people,
and concentrated on computer issues, but as more people began to use
the instance, it's focus became more diverse.  There was no attempt to
keep the instance private, and all transactions over it were logged in
a commonly accessible file.\footnote{Other, more restricted help
channels, for very high level discussion, have also been formed}   As
more Athena users heard about the instance, it's usage increased,
although this increase has been slower than the growth of Athena
itself.  Currently, around 500 different people use the help instance,
although many others ask questions on rare occasions.  

\section{Rules of Use}

Surprisingly, there are neither formal nor informal rules with regards
to use of the instance.  Anyone may use it, and all questions are
appropriate.  The implementation of zephyr
makes it difficult to exclude a user from sending messages to an
instance, which has partially influenced this policy, but most current
users of the instance would not add restrictions even were it
technically feasible.  The
consensus opinion among current users of the instance is that a set of
rules would break its informal nature.  However, this lack of rules
does not prohibit the ``flaming'' of users who are abusive of the
instance, for example by being rude, or asking an excessive number of
questions\footnote{This is a flexible number; if the user also answers
questions, they may never be challenged.  Generally, this only comes
up when a user is almost flooding the instance with questions.}.

This lack of official policy seems to leave the help instance open to
abuse, but thus far it has not been a problem.  This seems to be due
to a sense of self-moderation in all people who have thus used it.
Everyone seems to recognize the uniqueness of the help instance, that
only at MIT has something like this evolved and continued.  There is a
very strong sense among all involved that its another student on the
other end, spending their own time to help out, and that such is not
to be abused.  As one user put it:
\begin{quotation}
When I first started using the help instance, I'd just ask a question
as soon as it popped into my head.  Later, I realized that I could
read the man pages before asking my questions, instead of asking and
having people tell me to read it.  Know I research first, and if I'm
still confused, then I ask.
\end{quotation}
The answer of ``read the man pages'', or ``rtfm''\footnote{Read The
Fucking Manual, also sometimes RTFSL, Read The Fucking Source Luke
when no manual exists\cite{TNHD}} is a common response on the help
instance, and
always meant as a friendly reply, not rude as it's language might
imply.  Even those new to the help instance tend to grasp this
quickly, although many experienced users will try to be more explicit
with those new to the instance, fully listing how to use man pages,
and which man page to read for the specific information requested.

One of the true signs of a seasoned veteran of the help instance is
very concise questions, containing all information that could be
needed to solve the question.  New users will frequently be overly
vague in their initial questions, and a round of requests for more
details will follow, before anyone can get down to answering the
question.  Frequently, new users are unsure of what information is
fully relevant, and are slow in producing the relevant information,
or seem to be asking a truly useless question.
This leads to the famous call of ``Tell me what you're really trying
to do'' by an experienced user, who can then understand exactly what
the person needs to do, and give a concise answer.

\subsection{Other Instances}

Occasionally, users are asked to take discussions off of help, onto
other zephyr instances to prevent the loss of questions due to high
volume.  Frequently this is hold a meta-discussion of the current
question being answered, on the instance {\it help.d}.  Large questions may
create their own instances; for example, a question about computer
security may lead to the creation and use of the instance {\it
security}.  These additional instances are easy to subscribe to, but
anyone who does not do so explicitly will not see the further
discussion.  

\subsection{FlameWars}

Flamewars on the help instance are discouraged, because they detract
from normal usage of the instance.  Nonetheless, when users ask
questions without clear answers, a flamewar often ensues.  Frequently,
several people will attempt to answer the same question, and when
their answers disagree, some reconciliation is needed.  A flamewar
frequently begins if the different answers are a result of differing
opinions, rather than a simple case of one user being right and the
other wrong.
\footnote{The classic example of this being when a user asks for a
recommendation of OS's between Linux and NetBSD}  As mentioned above,
theses conversations are usually taken to other instances very
quickly, but the volume they produce frequently convinces users to
``punt'' (unsubscribe) from the help instance.

\subsection{ZephyrGrams}

One of the exceptions to not flaming users is when people send
zephyrgrams to the help instance with overly ornate ``zsigs'', an
optional message field that contains random comments.  Typical zsigs
range from a persons name, to quotes from TV shows, to overheard
comments.  The Zephyr programs allow users to specify the formatting
and appearance of their zsig, and many users choose to make theirs
extravagant, multicolored, multiline affairs.  Many users of the help
instance find this very rude, and refuse to answer questions until the
zsig is replaced.  This depends upon whom is around, and some active
members of the help instance never complain, but flamewars over zsigs
are a fairly consistent theme on the help instance.

\section{Usage Patterns}

One of the keys to the help instance is that people answer questions
on it 24 hours a day.  The number of people available to answer
questions varies according to time of day, but, due to the strange
sleep patterns of MIT students, there are usually at least a few other
people on-line at any given time.  However, there are certainly peak
time periods for use of the instance, when it seems every question
receives several answers.  Usually weekday evenings, from 5:00 p.m. to
12:00 a.m., and all day on weekends, have this level of usage.  Thus,
when people have questions that need answered, they will
frequently save them to ask during a peak time.  

Currently, there are about 500 hundred people using the help instance
on a regular basis, sending over 5,000 messages a month.  Individual
usage ranges from several hundred messages per month, to just one.
Considering the 5,000 undergraduates at MIT, the proportion using the
help instance is smaller than might be expected.  This is largely
because very few people know about the instance, largely because none
of Athena's official documentation mentions it.  The On Line
Consultants (OLC, see Section \ref{OLC}) are the officially
supported method of answering questions, and most students
automatically use them, lessening the need for the help instance.
However, OLC is much slower in responding to questions than the help
instance, taking several hours on average to answer questions, while
the help instance offers instant answers.  This differing response
times of the two groups leads many users to use each resource for
different types of questions.  

As one user stated the difference between OLC and the help instance:
\begin{quotation}
I use the help instance when I have a quick question, that can be
summed up in a paragraph, and I expect the answer to be of similar
size.  I use OLC for larger questions, or ones that require
significant amounts of research.  Of course, this has the effect that
I've only used OLC ten times since getting here.
\end{quotation}
This is a common sentiment, and many users of the help instance
find that they rarely use OLC.  The help instance is simply faster,
easier, and in some cases, more accurate.

The help instance is really just a group of people, tied together by
the zephyr communication medium.  Most members of the group will
recognize the usernames of most of the others, and will know which
people's answers are to be completely trusted, and which you should
wait for verification on.  Although almost all members of the help instance
are students (undergraduate or graduate) or faculty, many do not know
any of the others, except by username.  The remainder of the paper
will examine why this diverse group of individuals continue to use the
help instance, and the social groups behind it's workings.

\section{A Knowledge Based Hierarchy}

Perhaps the most obvious hierarchy within the help instance is based
upon knowledge, and answering questions.  At the top of this pecking
order are those with the most information, and most willing to help
other users.  This group is frequently
called ``wizards'', in the tradition of comparing computer usage to
magic.  For example, see comp.unix.wizards, or the ``True Names''
\cite{Vinge}. 

Then there are those who are well versed in the use of
the help instance, but whom primarily ask questions, answering simple
questions whose answers have been given to them in the past.  And
finally, lowest on the hierarchy, are those new to the instance,
unsure of it's usage, unknown to all others.  Those at the bottom of
the hierarchy look up to those above them, and attempt to learn more,
thus climbing higher on the pecking order.  

\subsection{Frequent Answerers}

The frequent answerers constitute the top level of this constructed
hierarchy.  These are users who know the answers to the most
difficult questions, and whom {\bf never} answer incorrectly.  They
are either students who have come to MIT with a very strong
background, or older students and faculty.  Although most of the
obvious frequent answerers have their strengths in computer science,
there are several others around, particularly in math and languages.  
Several of the wizards currently using the help instance are students
who graduated many years ago, and maintained their accounts due to
SIPB, OLC, or IS affiliation.\footnote{Several Athena related groups
have been granted the ability to give members permanent Athena
accounts, rather than the normal policy of removing accounts upon
graduation}  There are also several student wizards, to dispel the
notion that only older people may attain this rank.

\subsection{Frequent Askers}

Frequent askers on the other hand are those who primarily ask
questions, and occasionally answer those that they can.  This
characterizes the average user of the help instance, one whom listens
well and tries to remember all the answers given to them.  Their title
is perhaps poor, for they answer as many questions as they answer;
their answers, however, are repeats of previously answered questions,
and lack the depth of understanding that characterizes those of
wizards.  There are many stages of frequent askers, and many are well
on their way to becoming frequent answerers, per the stages mentioned
in The Loginataka (see \cite{Loginataka}).  Numerically, this group
makes up most of the members of the help instance, and their postings
make up most of its volume.

\subsection{Newbies}

Newbies form the lowest order of the hierarchy of knowledge and are
least sure of themselves.  This group is made up of students who may
have been referred to the help instance by friends, or by OLC.  In
many cases they are unsure on how to send to instances using zephyr,
and the proper protocol to use of the instance.  Most don't know how
many people, if any at all, are going to hear their question, nor if
anyone will be able to answer it.  Some users move out of this stage
very quickly, after staying subscribed to the help instance after
their initial question was answered, while others unsubscribe
immediately, and remain newbies for extended periods of time.
Several newbies described their view of the help instance as:
\begin{quotation}
It felt really wiHierarchying my questions to a bunch of other students
whom I didn't know.  But I always got answers, even though sometimes
the people on the instance got into weird discussions that I didn't
understand.
\end{quotation}
The weird discussions referred to are the flamewars and
meta-discussions mentioned above, which frequently stay on the main
instance, despite intentions to move elsewhere.


\subsection{Problems with the Hierarchy of Knowledge}

The problem with trying to examine the help instance as a hierarchy of
knowledge stems from the lack of rewards for the frequent answerers.
Unlike wizards on MUDs, frequent answerers get no special
powers, nor is their status obvious except to those who see their
names frequently.  Furthermore, many users seek out these knowledgeable
users off the instance, trying to get more detailed answers without
the intermediary of the help instance.  Thus, the knowledgeable users
have to additionally inconvenienced beyond the time they have already
expended answering questions.  Finally, those wizards that I talked to
claimed that the respect of those less knowledgeable than them wasn't
a primary reason to answer questions on the instance.  Instead, the
consensus response was summed up with one's answer:
\begin{quotation}
I simply like helping people, showing people where to find information
to continue learning on their own.  I'm trying to help other people learn,
as people in the past helped me.
\end{quotation}
Towards the mentioned end of showing people where to find information
to continue learning on their own, many of the wizards will attempt to
give a bit of background, as well as the answer that a person was
asking.  For instance, it's not uncommon for a wizard's response to go
into the background on why things work the way they do, explaining the
logic that the original designers used, so that others will fully
understand the answer.  

\section{Student Groups}

Thus, to obtain a better working model of the help instance, I've
tried to explain it's success in terms of some of the social and
service groups on campus.  One very noticeable trait of the help
instance is that many of the wizards know each other really well, and
that most of the frequent users of the help instance also use other
zephyr instances to talk with groups of friends.  Two of the very
obvious groups involved are the Student Information Processing Board
(SIPB), a student group devoted to helping student computer usage, and
the On Line Consultants (OLC), who are paid to help other students.  Finally,
there are several social groups composed of people that spend lots of
time on line, and who use the help instance frequently.  It is these
groups, and their members, that keep the help instance alive.  By
providing an enjoyable atmosphere on line, wizards stay on line,
helping other people, and new members are encouraged to contribute to
be accepted as members of the groups.

\subsection{SIPB}

The Student Information Processing Board is a student run organization
dedicated to helping other students with computers.  It also attracts
the students most interested in computers, whom are likely to be
logged on the highest percentage of the time.  From the SIPB bylaws:
\begin{quotation}
The principal purpose of this Board shall be to
provide the M.I.T. community with improved access to
computational facilities.  The secondary purposes
of the Board include: ... functioning as an information center for undergraduates
interested in the various computers known to the SIPB and in
other topics in computer science or computing at M.I.T.
\end{quotation}
The SIPB is a very active in helping students solve computer problems
off-line, and thus continuing this role on-line is very reasonable.
The SIPB office is located next to the largest Athena cluster on
campus, and users very frequently walk into the office to ask
questions.  SIPB members also produce many programs and documents
designed to make use of Athena easier for students.  Thus, given
SIPB's existance, it is easy to see the continued existence of the
help instance.

However, the continued existance of SIPB must still be explained.  The
group is now 25 years old, and appears to be going strong.  Membership
in the group certainly has some advantages, but most members' stated
reason for joining is to help other users.  Strong backing for this
may be found in the high cross-membership between SIPB and APO (See
\ref{APO}), and that MIT sees the SIPB doing enough for the Athena
community to continue their high degree of funding.

\subsection{OLC}
\label{OLC}
The On Line Consultants are students paid by Information Services (IS,
the administrative department in charge of Athena) to answer questions
submitted by users of Athena.  All OLC members are automatically
subscribed to the help instance whenever they are on duty.  This is
both for their usage in trying to answer questions, and in the hope
that consultants will answer questions there if there are no
outstanding questions in the help queue.\footnote{All questions
submitted to OLC are put in a queue, for consultants to answer.  This
queue is rarely emptied, but it happens occasionally}  More
importantly than what they do while on duty though, is that OLC
members tend to remain subscribed after duty, and often help answering
questions on it, using the knowledge that they have picked up during
work.  Finally, OLC members can be paid for after hours work, and for
time spent gaining knowledge that will help them with consulting, and
thus many use the help instance to try and gain extra knowledge.

\subsection{Other Groups}
\label{APO}
Additionally, there is Alpha Phi Omega (APO), an national, coed,
service fraternity, whose membership heavily overlaps with SIPB and
OLC.  APO is centered on the principles of leadership, friendship, and
service.  Although APO is not directly tied to computers in any way,
there is a high correlation between SIPB and APO membership.  Again,
as with SIPB, there are obvious reasons for it's members to be active
on the help instance.

All of the groups thus mentioned are official groups, with charters
and such.  However, equally important to the survival of the help
instance, are the social groups made up of people on the help
instance.  In particular, there is a large group of people who use a
wide variety of instances and classes, including the white-magic
instance (a general topics forum), and various meta-discussion
instances (instance names with the .d extension).  Although there can
be no strict definition of this group, and it's membership is very
fluid, as old students graduate and new ones enter, but there remains
a constant group of people who use zephyr a lot.

Membership in this group is tied to extensive use of Athena, for to
remain an active member, one must be logged in to participate in
discussions.  Yet there are many who are logged in a lot, but not
members of this community.  The defining line for the group is hard
to find, but becoming a member is much the same as becoming a member
of a purely social MUD or IRC channel.  In much the same way that a
member of a MUD will try and log on for several hours each day, so
will members of the zephyr community try to log on, to chat with
friends, while simultaneously checking mail, and reading netnews.
They are also subscribed to the help instance, among many others, and
while taking breaks from other work, they answer questions on the help
instance.

\subsection{Evidence for Student Groups}

I measured usage of the help instance over a three month period, from 
January 16, 1996 to April 20, 1996, using a previously set up logging
facility.  During this time, a total of over 24,000 messages were sent
by 487 people.  Of those, slightly over 10,000 were sent by SIPB
members, and another 2,500 by OLC members, with messages by members of
both given to the group they are more involved with.  Although parsing
by content is very difficult to do, my and others' experience suggests
that a large percentage of the postings by SIPB and OLC members are
answers to questions asked by others.  The almost exact 50\% split of
questions is artificially tempting, in that SIPB and OLC members are
not simply answering questions asked by non-affiliated people all the
time.  Certainly members of both groups use the help instance for
asking their own questions, and there are several wizards not
affiliated with any of the organizations.

The strongest evidence for the Student Groups model comes from the
feelings of the members of the help instance.  In any other model, one
would expect frequent answerers to expect some form of repayment from
those whose questions they answer, or at least expect other users to
try and contribute their share to the help instance.  Instead, there
is a feeling of community, where people try to contribute to the
welfare of the whole.  New members are freely welcomed, although
until they join one of the groups, may not be fully a part of the
community.  

\section{Implications of Student Groups}

The Student Groups model has unfortunate implications for hopes of
using the zephyr model in other situations.  It is extremely difficult
to create a community such as the one behind the help instance; they
must instead develop on their own, over time.  The academic
atmosphere of MIT is very conducive towards doing so, as students are
forced to spend long periods on line, and many spend even longer
voluntarily.  In a typical workplace atmosphere, most users would be to busy
during the limited time they were logged on each day, and thus such a
computer based community would be difficult to form.  

\section{Conclusion}

The zephyr help instance is a truly rare phenomenon, and a great asset
to the MIT computer environment.  It survives because of the student
groups that are also active on the Athena computer system, namely SIPB,
OLC, and the social groups that are active.  These groups create a
strong sense of community among users, such that knowledgeable users
are encouraged to stay and contribute beyond the point when they no
longer are receiving commensurate benefit from the help instance.
Thus, users remain subscribed to the help instance for long periods of
time, helping others, in a cycle that continues as newbies learn
enough to eventually become the next generation of wizards.

\newpage
\singlespace
\begin{thebibliography}{99}

\bibitem{CHI96} Ackerman, M., Palen, L.  The Zephyr Help Instance: 
Promoting Ongoing Activity in a CSCW System.  
{\em http://www.ics.uci.edu/~ackerman/docs/chi96/zephyr.chi96.html}

\bibitem{Loginataka} Raymond, Eric.  ``The Loginataka: Dialogue between
a Guru and a Newbie''  [World Wide Web]
{\em http://www.ccil.org/~esr/faqs/loginataka.html}

\bibitem{TNHD} Raymond, Eric.  The New Hackers Dictionary, Second
Edition.  MIT Press, Boston MA.  1993.

\bibitem{Vinge} Vinge, Vernor.  ``True Names''.  Dell Binary Star \#5.
Dell Publishing, 1981.

\bibitem{Zephyr} DellaFera, C., Eichin M., French R., Jedlinsky D.,
Kohl J., Sommerfeld B.  The Zephyr Notification Service.  Proceedings
of the Usenix Technical Conference, 1988.

\end{thebibliography}
\end{document}


