Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 13:32:18 -0800 (PST) From: Burton Sampley <burton@bsampley.vip.best.com> To: Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC <softweyr@xmission.com> Cc: Andrew Perry <andrew@python.shoal.net.au>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Mailing lists archives Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.95q.970328131035.205B-100000@bsampley.vip.best.com> In-Reply-To: <199703281840.LAA10068@xmission.xmission.com>
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I just want to take a minute to throw in my $0.02. On Fri, 28 Mar 1997, Wes Peters - Softweyr LLC wrote: [...sniped...] > > Good point. The mailing lists are listed much more prominently on the > web site and the CD-ROM booklet than the mail archives. On the other > hand, this topic is mentioned every month in the 'How to get more out > of the FreeBSD mailing lists' message. One important point you might have overlooked about the 'How to get more..." message. This message is sent only to those individuals that already subscribe to the mailing lists. This does not get the message accross to the people who need this info, ie. the newbies (I think we've all been there) that go to the www.freebsd.org support page. Most of these people do not subscibe to the list, therefore how are they suppose the benifit from this info? My second point. Before writing this message I visited the support page. The first paragraph basically says the mailing lists are the primary support machanism and when it doubt send your message to -questions. It does state that a search functions is available, but the presentation of the info points to the mailing list first and the search function as an alternative. I didn't look too hard, but maybe a version of the 'How to get more...' message should be posted on the website so that if the user chooses to send a message to the mailing list, they must read this message first. As an alternative, maybe a webpage can be created with the top ten (or twenty) most common questions and answers. I know this info is covered in the FAQ, but there is so much info in the FAQ, that some users feel it's easier to send a help message than plow through the FAQ. That's why I'm suggesting a limit of ten but no more than 20 items. The first two that come to mind are the problem of the missing lib in emacs (from the 2.1.5R CDROM) and the infamous atapi.flp. [...sniped..] --- Brought to you by a 100% Micro$oft free system. You too can disinfect your system at http://www.freebsd.org E-Mail: burton@bsampley.vip.best.com Alternate E-Mail: bsampley@haywire.csuhayward.edu Home Page: http://www.best.com/~bsampley (permanently under construction)
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