From owner-freebsd-newbies Thu Aug 27 02:33:05 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id CAA14487 for freebsd-newbies-outgoing; Thu, 27 Aug 1998 02:33:05 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from phoenix.welearn.com.au (suebla.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.44.81]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id CAA14466 for ; Thu, 27 Aug 1998 02:33:00 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sue@phoenix.welearn.com.au) Received: (from sue@localhost) by phoenix.welearn.com.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id TAA21977; Thu, 27 Aug 1998 19:31:55 +1000 (EST) Message-ID: <19980827193150.57832@welearn.com.au> Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 19:31:51 +1000 From: Sue Blake To: Greg Lehey Cc: gek , freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: my list References: <3.0.5.32.19980826223845.00798700@pop.netaddress.com> <19980827180508.F14055@freebie.lemis.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.88e In-Reply-To: <19980827180508.F14055@freebie.lemis.com>; from Greg Lehey on Thu, Aug 27, 1998 at 06:05:08PM +0930 Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Thu, Aug 27, 1998 at 06:05:08PM +0930, Greg Lehey wrote: > > I think we have too many lists already. From before the inception of > FreeBSD-newbies, I had long discussions with Sue Blake about whether > we needed -newbies. The jury's still out on that one, but I can't > think of an earthly reason to have another one, especially not one > which sounds like -newbies. I'll try to summarise... The reasons given recently have included that freebsd-questions is too much mail for most home-user newbies to cope with, most of which is "noise" to us in that it's too hard to understand, can't be used and is not relevant. Also, there are people who want to have the chance to give tips to others, even though they don't know much. Such tips are so elementary that they would sound silly somewhere like freebsd-questions. And for whatever reason, there is still a perception that the purpose of freebsd-questions is not to help newbies. We haven't found ways to change any of these things from our end within the existing system, nor have our needs and inhibitions been acknowledged as real. So some have decided to go outside the system and work as best they can with peers, rather than try to explain it all again to people who they imagine cannot understand. There will be problems either way, so what is there to lose? I agree about the name though. Asking for and giving help are things that everyone does, and in my mind they have nothing special to do with being a newbie. I don't like being defined in terms of helplessness. But when newbies are the only ones without a convenient way to *give* help, then I suppose that deprivation makes it relevant. Still, the name's bad. It should have been called something like fbsd-help. -- Regards, -*Sue*- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message