Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 11:11:43 -0400 From: Chris Browning <brownicm@prokyon.com> To: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: -newbies ($0.02 more) Message-ID: <39E9C92F.2EACA020@prokyon.com> References: <F205jRE95jAoS1dzhRB00003350@hotmail.com> <39E8E276.929B570F@gorean.org>
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I've been lurking, too and fearful of jumping in; FWIW here's mine... Doug Barton wrote: > <snip> > No, they really don't. We have made huge progress during the last two > years at making -questions a "kindler, gentler" place to ask even the > most mundane question. And even though there are still the occasional > boneheads, it is actually doing quite well, _especially_ considering the > vast expansion of the freebsd userbase during the same period. Sometimes what needs work is _gently_ telling those who post an inappropriate question to -newbies that the question needs to be on -questions. I've been using FreeBSD since 2.1.5 but still consider myself in some ways a newbie. I follow -newbies because I find questions that I feel I can help folks with. I tend to answer off-list (I know I shouldn't) and try to gently encourage the poster to try -questions and to explain the rationale behind the other replies they've gotten that insist they've posted to the _wrong_ list. > > In short, there should be one place, and one place only that is the > starting point for real questions. The meta-questions like, "I need to > ask about hooping my frobnitz, but I'm not sure which list is the right > one to ask on" are still on topic for -newbies, even though that > question could really be asked on -questions too. I agree with and appreciate the one-place-only theory. With FreeBSD I know I'm not getting some third- or fourth-hand interpretation of what someone thinks should the the right answer. That's why my Linux box is an experiment and learning-tool and FreeBSD is my primary computer. I also realize that this is exactly why I should _not_ answer the questions I do off-list. It defeats the peer-review process that makes open-source so powerful. I just hate to see potential BSD users run off pointlessly. Perhaps a person posting an inappropriately technical question to -newbies should be congratulated on making that first step towards the level of sophistication needed to move to -questions. Pardon my prolixity. Thanks for listening. -- ------------------------ Chris Browning brownicm@prokyon.com ------------------------ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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