Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 10:25:33 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Using freebsd-questions Message-ID: <19980715102533.57907@welearn.com.au>
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Recently a few people have mentioned being surprised by some of the
responses they get to questions posted to freebsd-questions.
I'm going to try to put this into perspective so that you can make
sense of the range of interactions you'll see there.
(Note to those easily impressed: this is all personal opinion)
When someone answers a question they convey two kinds of information:
technical and social. Being unix types [and here I duck the flames :-)]
they tend to express the technical and be unaware of the social
messages that come through at the same time.
Add to this the fact that the -questions subscribers are an enormous
group showing the expected range of human diversity in any large group,
including making mistakes and needing to learn sometimes, and you'll
see that we've got an exceptionally good bunch of volunteer supporters.
Compared to similar newsgroups or mailing lists for other systems,
they're very well behaved towards newbies and give reliable information
promptly. I'd like to see it stay that way.
The technical side of answers works really well. Generally nobody
answers unless they really know what they're talking about. If there
are several possible answers you're likely to get them all, along with
help to decide which way is best for you. If any of these answers
contains an error, someone will follow up pretty quick and correct it.
Similar support groups that I've seen elsewhere are plagued by people
giving wrong advice, which to a newbie is worse than no advice. This
doesn't happen here. Someone new to freebsd-questions might give a
half-baked answer once in a while, but peer pressure quickly teaches
them that FreeBSD people don't do guesses.
The social side is largely ignored, but to us as insecure newbies it
can be the most salient feature of our visit to freebsd-questions.
Again, here we are pretty lucky. The guys who answer most of the
questions (you know who they are) do so with a level of courtesy and
understanding that is not easily found elsewhere. They do it because
they want to help, not to make themselves indispensable heroes, never
to show off or put anyone down, and that comes across whether they are
aware of it or not.
In any large group of people there will be a few who excel, and a few
who are too new to understand the social environment, or who are there
for the wrong reasons. On rare occasions you might encounter someone
answering questions who is misguided, insensitive, or plain wrong.
If this happens to you, please don't take it as an indication of the
general feeling of those who help in -questions. Hang around and you'll
see that they are far from typical, nor do they represent the
established FreeBSD spirit of quality help for anyone who shows they're
trying. They need time to learn the social ropes, just like we need
time to learn the technical ropes. There's no reason to let it upset
you; it's their problem, not yours. Ignore them and show your
appreciation for the pleasant majority. Never doubt yourself, and let
your behaviour as a confident newbie speak for all newbies. Even the
experts can make mistakes, and they will learn from their own peers
soon enough if we give them the chance to try.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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