Re: FreeBSD-newbies group is a compromise community.

From: Tom McLaughlin (tmclaugh_at_sdf.lonestar.org)
Date: 03/19/04

  • Next message: Martin Hudec: "Re: FreeBSD-newbies group is a compromise community." 
    To: Jamie <jamie@gnulife.org>
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 00:47:11 -0500

    Apologies, forgot to CC the mailing list the first time.

    On Thu, 2004-03-18 at 23:43, Jamie wrote:
    > On Fri, 19 Mar 2004, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:
    >
    > > On Friday, 19 March 2004 at 9:23:52 +0700, Anurak C. wrote:
    > > > On Friday, March 19, 2004 5:18 AM, Eric wrote:
    > > >> Quoting Freddie Cash <fcash-ml@sd73.bc.ca>:
    > > <snip>
    >
    > Sorry, I should have read the charter. I didn't want to bother the
    > gurus and wizards with what I thought might be a question which would come
    > from someone inexperienced, and title "newbies" *sounded* like a good
    > place to ask it. I was just judging it by the name of the group, and not
    > by the charter, so thats how I made my mistake. To me, newbies sounds like
    > a haven for those whose asbestos underwear are away at the laundromat. Had
    > I read the charter, I wouldn't have posted in newbies.
    >
    > I see plenty of folks in freebsd-questions getting flamed for not reading
    > the manual, when I think in fact many of them are so inexperienced
    > that they aren't aware of just where the manual they need is yet, or
    > whether the additional manual they need even exists. A lot of questions
    > are probably even ignored because people read the questions and think to
    > themselves "I won't answer this - the guy hasn't read the manual, or he
    > doesn't have a clue what is going on". Sometimes the person with the
    > question may have read the manual but misunderstood it, or could not
    > locate the relevant docs.
    >
    > Maybe it is a dumb idea, but perhaps there should be a freebsd-newbies
    > list for *newcomers* with technical questions, and the current
    > freebsd-newbies list for general experiences could be renamed to
    > freebsd-newcomers-nontechnical list (or some variant).
    >
    > - Jamie
    >

    I'll throw my hat in the ring here since I am a FreeBSD newbie (4 months
    today exactly!) but have at least 5 years of *nix experience which has
    helped to ease the transition. I started experimenting with linux
    having a Windows only background and a copy of RedHat (and then a copy
    of Mandrake because it had an auto-partition option in the install) 5.2
    from Cheap Bytes plus Running Linux 2nd Edition.

    I also subscribed to the RH and MDK newbie and expert mailing lists. I
    ended up unsubscribing from the expert lists because I understood almost
    nothing they were talking about on there. The questions on newbies were
    more on my level and were the types of things I was having questions
    about. I learned A LOT on those lists just by lurking for some time on
    them. The problem I see with all technical and support questions be
    directed to freebsd-questions and freebsd-hackers is that at least
    freebsd-questions (not subscribed to freebsd-hackers) is a high volume
    list. Greg, as you pointed out earlier, most people don't post, they
    lurk. I think people lurk because they are looking to pickup
    information and read what is relevant to their situation. I think for a
    newbie it is a bit of work to sift through the noise on -questions and
    find what is relevant to their situation and needs.

    I don't think there should be a list that is "Don't bother reading...
    Just come and ask". (Gawd I can't stand those lists.) But a list where
    newbies can post limited technical questions may be of some use. What
    is the average newbie's technical background today? Are more people
    coming to FreeBSD without a *nix background than in years past? A place
    for limited technical discussion made be an excellent place for today's
    newbie to lurk and pickup information in addition to other sources.

    One of the problems with newbie lists as pointed out several times
    before is if you ask a question in a room full of clueless people you
    will get a lot of clueless answers. When I started on the Mandrake
    newbies list I remember there were a few developers on it who took time
    to answer newbie questions and to make sure that people got the right
    answers. OpnBSD as well has an unofficial newbie technical list run by
    someone who is rather knowledgeable. I bet there are people involved
    with FreeBSD who would do the same.

    Lastly (Finally I'm done!), the documentation for FreeBSD is great but
    sometimes I have questions on what I just read. Google is a great tool
    but sometimes it yields conflicting "answers" because things change or I
    just ended up with following that bum post which was wrong. Then there
    are those days I get excited when I read the answer to a question I
    hadn't even asked yet.

    I'm done now and sleep is near. Comments, suggestions, insults about my
    cat welcome.

    Tom

    > Greetings from Minneapolis, MN, United States
    >
    > "A friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself."
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  • Next message: Martin Hudec: "Re: FreeBSD-newbies group is a compromise community."

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