Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sat, 18 Sep 1999 20:07:36 -0700
From:      Doug <Doug@gorean.org>
To:        Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
Cc:        freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: /dev entries for NIC's
Message-ID:  <37E45378.B0311011@gorean.org>
References:  <Pine.LNX.3.96.990917163352.9308A-100000@spectre> <Pine.BSF.4.10.9909171643510.38183-100000@dt014nb6.san.rr.com> <19990919100929.R55065@freebie.lemis.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
	I'm snipping most of your post because I don't think it adds anything to
the discussion. However there are a couple of things I wanted to mention. 

Greg Lehey wrote:
> 
> On Friday, 17 September 1999 at 16:52:50 -0700, Doug wrote:

> > B) My original post DID tell the user to direct his questions to
> > -questions.
> 
> Fine, but it should have left it at that.

> >       Lately this list has been turning into one pissing contest
> > after another, and the whole tone of it is entirely inappropriate.
> 
> Judging by this message, I'd say you're obviously a contributor.  If
> you're concerned about the list becoming a pissing match, don't join
> in.
> 
> > The purpose of this list is to provide support and encouragement to
> > new users, not to give people a chance to pound one another over the
> > head with their whopping months of experience.
> 
> Well, it's for encouragement, anyway.  "Support" can mean different
> things, and at least one aspect is the province of -questions.

	Yes, I realized that "support" was a poor choice of words after I sent the
post. 
 
> > My suggestion is that if you can't find better things to do with
> > your time than to publicly criticize people who actually are
> > helping, simply refrain from posting till you can.
> 
> Good idea!  I didn't see anything objectionable in Marty's message,
> but I had my doubts about yours. 

	I find the same thing objectionable about Marty's post that I do about
yours. Namely that you both are judging something entirely out of context.
The original post was so poorly written that merely telling the user to
forward his post to -questions would have resulted in more frustration for
him, and he was already at the end of his rope. In my attempt to instruct
him on what he should include in his post to -questions I probably provided
more "answers" than were strictly  necessary, but I didn't see the point in
browbeating someone who was ready to give up on freebsd with the fact that
he sent his letter to the "wrong" list. You may recall that this was one of
my objections to starting the -newbies list in the first place. If I were
someone coming to freebsd for the first time and you asked me where the
best place to ask a question was the first thing I'd look for would be a
new users list. If my first experience with that list was, "*whap whap
whap* Don't ask questions here!" I'd think twice about asking the question
in the first place. As it was the poor guy got flamed to death due to the
tone of his message, and the fact that he dared mention microsoft. Without
violating his confidence I will mention briefly that he was kind enough to
send me a private "thank you" message expressing his appreciation for my
being one of the few people who actually dealt with the problems he had at
hand instead of criticizing him for how he posted. 

	You and I have had a few pleasant exchanges in the past Greg, so I'm
willing to write this business off to you being in a bad mood, or something
equally inconsequential. I did find it ironic however that you chose to
comment publicly on my request to limit the amount of public criticism on
the list... *chuckle*

Doug


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?37E45378.B0311011>