Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 11:41:08 -0500 From: Rick Siple <RickSiple@mpainc.com> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: newbies mailing list Message-ID: <6150EE893AC3D011A3360020AFF799985F85@INETSERVER>
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> -----Original Message----- > From: Don Wilde [SMTP:dwilde1@ibm.net] > Sent: Monday, March 2, 1998 10:10 AM > To: Sue Blake > Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG > Subject: Re: newbies mailing list > > Hi, Sue - > Many of us were newbies recently enough to _still_ consider > ourselves > in that group. I enjoy answering questions I understand [ somewhat ;\ > ], > and I get a lot of good stuff from the -questions list, but I wouldn't > sign up for YAML. > > I still consider myself a part of the newbie group as well and thought > I would post a few of my own observations. > > I think the key is to not be embarrassed to ask anything. > [...] > On this note I can say that I put an exceptional amount of > thought into the messages I send to questions (all three of the > questions). Basically, it is just because I don't want to look like > an idiot. I have a bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering so I > consider myself to be a fairly intelligent individual, but I am still > intimidated by the more experienced members on the lists. I don't > know how to solve the problem, but I would hate to see the user base > become divided as the members of the proposed newbies list gain more > experience but perhaps fail to migrate to the original lists because > they are more comfortable where they are. > > I 'third' the search-archive problem. Improvement is necessary > there, > although the hiccuping hub.freebsd disk may be somewhat to blame. > > I've experienced this myself. The major problem seems to be > that the messages are not threaded. If NNTP articles were used > instead of simple SMTP messages could the indexing engine be setup to > allow navigation of threads instead of individual messages? Sometimes > the article that mentions the keyword is the question and the > answering articles did not quote the keyword. Following threads on > the mailing lists as they occur can be just as difficult as persons > respond to earlier postings and create multiple threads. > I can't be the first person to have thought of this and I can > think of more than one technical difficulty. First, a news reader is > more difficult to setup for the end user. Second, I don't know if the > freely available NNTP servers can handle private newsgroups > (newsgroups sourced specifically by freebsd.org). Third, if any of > the software can do private lists, can it also perform access control > to keep newbies from accidentally posting to the technical lists. > Also, the indexer would have to be changed to handle threaded > articles, etc..... > > I'll stop babbling, as this has probably been hashed out before. > > -Rick Siple > RickSiple@MPAInc.com > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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