Re: New and Fearful

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Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 19:03:07 -0400
To: Dave Vollenweider <metaridley@mchsi.com>

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 09:45:11 -0500
Dave Vollenweider <metaridley@mchsi.com> wrote:

> Hi,

Hi Dave

> I'm new to this mailing list, but I've been using FreeBSD for over
> three months now, so I consider myself to be a newbie, but not a total
> newbie (I won't consider myself to be anything but until I've been
> told otherwise or I've been using FreeBSD for over a year, whichever
> comes last). I actually used Linux (first Red Hat, then Fedora, then
> Debian) before I switched.

I think we're all newbies at FreeBSD in some aspects. I really
don't think there's anyone that knows all about everything.

> I've been having problems with kernel panics lately, but I'm not
> asking for technical support; I've already got a debugging kernel and
> some crash dumps ready to send to whomever would be willing to take a
> look at them. No, I'm asking for moral support, as I've had some bad
> experiences asking for help on mailing lists in the past (it was my
> own local LUG, although I do admit I made the mistake of doing so when
> I was frustrated). As such, I'm fearful of sending this to anyone for
> fear of being told that I either didn't supply enough information or
> that the problem's too insignificant for anyone to solve. Yes, I know
> that the FreeBSD handbook says that the developers are very interested
> in these problems, but I'm still fearful of what may happen.

I would suggest starting at:

        http://www.freebsd.org/support.html#mailing-list

for a general overview of the mailing lists and a link where to read
about each one's charter. I think the one you might be most
interested in at this point is "How to get best results from the
FreeBSD-questions mailing list" which can be found at:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/freebsd-questions/

There's a section on how to best formulate a question so that you
can help others to help you.

Its not necessary to subscribe to a mailing list to post a
question. You can read the current week's list at:

        http://docs.freebsd.org/mail/current/

In your post, you might want to mention that you're not subscribed
to the list and would appreciate a CC:. Its standard practice,
but it won't hurt to mention it.

> I guess what I want to know is this: first of all, who or what mailing
> list can I send these two, and second, how likely is it that I'll
> either be ignored or get chewed out for this?

My guess is that freebsd-questions@freebsd.org would be your best
starting place. Someone might suggest another list if they think
the problem would be better addressed there. Not everyone reads
every mailing list.

I really don't think anyone will chew you out. That's just
unacceptable behaviour for a FreeBSD mailing list. It very rarely
happens. Most folks are willing to help in polite manner and
I don't think you have anything to fear there. I've seen them
called the friendliest, most helpful community that people have
encountered.

The subject line of your post should describe the problem very
briefly so that it will get the attention of those interested.
Often the developers are reading hundreds of emails a day and
many lists so you can imagine how a subject of "Help" might get
passed by.

Kernel debugging is way out of my league so you won't see me
involved, but I will probably read the discussion.

Good luck with your problem

Best regards,

Randy

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• Previous message: freebsder: "FreeBSD 5.1 DSL:Bellnet HS Network Connection Set-up Problems"
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