Re: FreeBSD-newbies group is a compromise community.

From: Ion-Mihai Tetcu (itetcu_at_apropo.ro)
Date: 03/22/04

  • Next message: Ion-Mihai Tetcu: "Re: FreeBSD-newbies group is a compromise community." 
    Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 22:13:43 +0200
To: Johnson David <DavidJohnson@Siemens.com>

    On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 11:41:03 -0800
    Johnson David <DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> wrote:

    > On Monday 22 March 2004 11:06 am, Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. wrote:
    >
    > > Finally, is this something we might agree on?
    > > Technical questions aren't permitted, but
    > > "your experiences" are....
    > >
    > > Newbie A: "I'm having trouble with foomatic..."
    > >
    > > Newbie B: "I had trouble with foomatic, but by
    > > changing the $bar variable in my $file, I was
    > > able to overcome this difficulty."
    >
    > The problem is that setting the $bar variable in $file might be exact
    > WRONG answer for the user in question. Newbies by their nature don't
    > understand the fundamental concepts behind the answer, and will blindly
    > perform the steps without question.
    >
    > For some questions, the wrong answer can be very harmful. The wrong
    > instructions for setting up XFree86 can physically destroy some older
    > monitors. Less obvious harm can result by opening up security holes in
    > the system.
    >
    > As much as we want to be helpful to other people, newbies should never
    > answer other newbie's technical questions. All technical answers should
    > be coming from experts, and on a list where other experts can instantly
    > jump in a correct any wrong answers.

    The hard thing being to define who is / what is a newbie and who / what
    is not ;-)
    Not that I don't agree with what you say above. 

    -- 
IOnut
Unregistered ;) FreeBSD user
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