Re: Time to shut down this list?

From: John Murphy (sub01_at_freeode.co.uk)
Date: 12/24/04

  • Next message: Robert Marella: "Re: Time to shut down this list?" 
    To: newbies@freebsd.org
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 17:31:14 +0000

    "Jay O'Brien" <jayobrien@att.net> wrote:
    >You ask newbies to respond; "how to get better answers?". How about a search engine
    >that provides useful responses to newbie questions? I get much better and more
    >useful responses from google than I do at the http://www.freebsd.org/search/page.

    I certainly agree. The freebsd mailing list search rarely seems to provide
    useful answers and, as the google mailing.freebsd search has disappeared, the
    need to improve it is greater than before. In the mean time a google search
    of docs.freebsd.org (phrase to search site:docs.freebsd.org) helps.

    >You didn't ask about -questions, but I'm going to answer anyway. The folks on
    >-questions are better, faster, friendlier and more accurate than any paid
    >support staff I've ever encountered. I'm pleased to be associated, if only in
    >a small way, with such a dedicated and committed team.

    True. And those who feel intimidated by the volume of posts can use it
    quite effectively without subscribing. Replies are ~always CC'd to the
    OP and the current messages are browseable at:
    http://docs.freebsd.org/mail/current/freebsd-questions.html

    As for whether the newbies list should be closed down, I don't see that
    anything would be gained by doing so. If the main fear is that newbie
    answers are sometimes misleading/incorrect then this could be fixed by
    convincing a few of the kind souls who man the questions list to also
    subscribe to this one. It is *very* low volume most of the time.
    OTOH would anyone expect perfect answers on a newbie list?

    Perhaps all messages addressed to newbies@ should automatically go to
    questions@. The subject field could be prepended with [newbies] and
    the extra volume would hardly be noticed and would be similar to that
    caused by closing this list.

    We should consider changing the charter or the name instead of closure.
    Would newbie-chat@ better indicate what the list is for? 

    -- 
Merry Christmas all, John.
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  • Next message: Robert Marella: "Re: Time to shut down this list?"

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