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Date:      Sat, 28 Aug 1999 18:33:07 +0900
From:      chas <panda@skinnyhippo.com>
To:        Ludwig Pummer <ludwigp@bigfoot.com>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: adopt a newbie program - Thanks
Message-ID:  <3.0.5.32.19990828183307.00a005c0@mail.skinnyhippo.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9908272358340.51141-100000@toy.chip-web.com>
References:  <3.0.5.32.19990828040752.00957750@mail.skinnyhippo.com>

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At 12:01 AM 8/28/99 -0700, Ludwig Pummer wrote:
>On Sat, 28 Aug 1999, chas wrote:
>
>> Person-in-trouble posts a question to the list.
>> 
>> People who know the answer email him/her directly (NOT broadcast to the
list).
>> 
>> Person-in-trouble sorts out his/her problem then posts the solution
>> back to the list with a subject line that starts "SUMMARY: " followed
>> by his/her original question.
>
>Disadvantages:
>1) a person could get 'bad' answers or advice

True. That's why I mentioned that it's probably better for a
'managers' community who rely on FreeBSD for their business and
have probably got a great amount of experience between them.
(I did say it was a bit of a tangent from the original thread).

In the past, I've had conflicting recommendations to solve a problem -
I simply had to test them out and post the results, saying what worked,
to the list. Should it ever happen that a SUMMARY contains false
information,  it can still be updated/corrected. That happens less
than 10% of the time.

>2) mail archives would only have the solution(s) if the person bothered to
>post a SUMMARY. I doubt you could actually _force_ someone to post it if
>he/she didn't want to, so...

No, you can't force them. The point is that the amount of 
traffic/noise is reduced; as the nature of the communications
then become more valuable, people do indeed post summaries...
also, you get this big guilty feeling if you don't. 
Beyond that, there was one guy who kept asking dumbo 
questions for stuff that was often in the FAQ, never sent a 
SUMMARY and didn't get much help thereafter.

I, for one, sometimes feel guilty that I am unable to answer
as many questions as I ask. But by posting summaries, you're
sort of 'giving back' and helping others further down the line.

Ok, I'll drop it for another 2 years :)

chas




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