Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 17:34:17 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: Eivind Eklund <eivind@yes.no> Cc: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Dos and Don'ts Message-ID: <19981006173417.64829@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <19981006083809.00946@follo.net>; from Eivind Eklund on Tue, Oct 06, 1998 at 08:38:09AM %2B0200 References: <19981006071237.02443@follo.net> <19981006155341.C27781@freebie.lemis.com> <19981006083809.00946@follo.net>
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On Tue, Oct 06, 1998 at 08:38:09AM +0200, Eivind Eklund wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 06, 1998 at 03:53:41PM +0930, Greg Lehey wrote:
> > On Tuesday, 6 October 1998 at 7:12:38 +0200, Eivind Eklund wrote:
> > > Dos and Don'ts of FreeBSD
> > > -------------------------
> > >
> > > DON'T run pppd unless you either
> > > (a) already have a working setup, or
> > > (b) absolutely need the 2% reduction of CPU usage it will give
> > > you.
> >
> > Why this? With all respect for Brian, I've found pppd to be more
> > reliable.
>
> Because it often lead to a large amount of pain (in setup), especially
> when somebody get the idea that they want to use NAT. In the cases
> where there are problems with iij-ppp, my impression is it usually get
> fixed pretty quickly (personally, I've never had a problem except when
> I've been hacking the code myself, so I can't give more than a
> second-hand impression).
In my experience, if newbies can mislead themselves they will, and
advice without a reason causes reasons to be guessed. Why not just say
that most people prefer not to use the kernel ppp? Of course, you'll
have to tell them that there are two kinds first, otherwise it will
confuse. Or easier, just forget it. ppp is covered in the Handbook and
lots of places.
> > > DON'T send questions to anything but questions@freebsd.org, except:
The two styles of addresses, questions@ and freebsd-questions@ seem
like they go to two different places. I prefer to always stick to the
full name for consistency. It makes (un)subscribing work a lot better
too.
> > > * Multimedia questions (TV-cards, sound cards, qcam, and
> > > similar) can go to multimedia@freebsd.org.
> > > * Questions directly related to the FreeBSD code (ie, not
> > > functionality) can be sent to hackers@freebsd.org
> > > * Questions about ISDN can be sent to isdn@freebsd.org
> >
> > Questions from newbies can go to -newbies if they meet Aunty Sue's
> > criteria.
>
> Then Aunty Sue had better come up with a suitable description ;-)
Sheesh, you would pick a time when most of a day's mail is stuck in the
spool to start taking my auntyhood in vain :-) Studded got it right the
first time. Freebsd-newbies does not cover anything that is already
covered by another list. It does have a charter, plus two supporting
web pages in case that's not enough.
There are already two lists where newbies can ask questions:
freebsd-questions plus an external group. Freebsd-newbies doesn't do
much at all except handle any nonsense that the other FreeBSD lists
won't tolerate, and redirect sorted-out people back to where they would
have gone had they known how.
I'm surprised that list charters don't get a pointer. We have had
incidents where understanding the top of the list charters page was
critical, but few knew it was there.
> > > DON'T send questions about anything (beyond the exceptions noted
> > > above) to any mailing list you are not a member of and have
> > > read for at least two days.
> >
> > This sounds funny, like you want them to be a member and not have read
> > it for two days.
>
> Is this better?
>
> DON'T send questions about anything (beyond the exceptions noted
> above) to any mailing list you have not read at least two days
> of traffic from. Yes, this implies you should be or have been
> a member.
Again, a newcomer would be puzzled by this. It's hard to see the
reason. Perhaps it's some strict rule? Do I have to read -multimedia
for two days before I can ask about my TV card before deciding whether
to install FreeBSD? Again, they deserve an explanation or a reason.
I'd suggest scrapping this one and replacing it with advice to search
the archives first (with URL#) and a reason.
This sounds like a good idea, worthy of getting 100% right.
Just my 2c worth here, maybe out of context as 1500 meandering emails
start to find their true home.
Hey, maybe add:
DON'T try to run your mail server with 8 megs RAM and 16 megs swap :-)
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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