From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Feb 15 19:20:43 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id TAA12335 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:20:43 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from vnode.vmunix.com (vnode.vmunix.com [209.112.4.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id TAA12292 for ; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:20:19 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mark@vnode.vmunix.com) Received: (from mark@localhost) by vnode.vmunix.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) id WAA03459; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 22:27:05 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from mark) Message-ID: <19980215222705.17622@vmunix.com> Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 22:27:05 -0500 From: Mark Mayo To: Sue Blake , Steve Clark Cc: FreeBSD Chat Subject: Re: Create newbie site? References: <34E79B1C.D39B7A7E@aei.ca> <19980216132627.38920@welearn.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.89.1i In-Reply-To: <19980216132627.38920@welearn.com.au>; from Sue Blake on Mon, Feb 16, 1998 at 01:26:28PM +1100 X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 2.2.5-STABLE i386 Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Mon, Feb 16, 1998 at 01:26:28PM +1100, Sue Blake wrote: > On Sun, Feb 15, 1998 at 08:49:17PM -0500, Steve Clark wrote: > > Hello everybody I am interested in building a complete newbie site to > > help the average user and complete beginner to the step over into > > FreeBSD. I am just wondering if the site would help and if it would be > > used by the general public. > [SNIP] > If a web site were a good idea (and I have reservations), it would need to > be done by someone who knows and awful lot about FreeBSD and how to > communicate with newbies, who has years of experience in both, and is > generally acknowledged as having those attributes. Considering the amount of > thankless work involved, I would be inclined to doubt the suitability of > anyone who would be willing to take it on :-) FWIW, myself and Chris Coleman are attacking something similar - simply an alternative free source of info for FreeBSD newbies. Our approach is to create an online book of sorts, with the possibility of it going to print if there was an interested publisher. This probably will never happen, and we'd only agree to it if we felt a book were "for the greater good of FreeBSD"... We've actually found that 95% of the feedback we receive (and we've literally received more than one hundred responses) is excellent. There are some people who prefer to rant and rave and claim that our explanations are "wildly inaccurate" and beg that we "please stop for the good of the community", who of course offer absolutely NO valuable input at all. But these mails are few and far between. Overall people seem to be accepting another information source quite positively, and we've incorportated TONS of ideas from the community at large for the project. I have countless mails from newbies in my INBOX thanking us for our work, so I'd have to disagree that the work is "thankless". :-) It can be quite rewarding actually! So I'd say any resource you can offer to new users is a valid resource. If you only help 10 people, there's nothing wrong with that, and who knows - you may evolve a site into a monster "One Stop FreeBSD Shop" with thousands of visitors!! In short, if you've got good ideas and are willing to spend the time, go for it! If you want to help us out, or vice versa, check out: http://www.vmunix.com/fbsd-book/ or mail fbsdbook@vmunix.com Good luck, -Mark > > These are the conclusions I reached some time ago when considering the same > thing myself. Basically it's a fantastic idea, long overdue, but I can't see > any way it could be made to work. > > Other views may be equally valid. As a newbie, what would I know? :-) > > -- > > Regards, > -*Sue*- > > find / -name "*.conf" |more > > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mark Mayo mark@vmunix.com RingZero Comp. http://www.vmunix.com/mark finger mark@vmunix.com for my PGP key and GCS code ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Win95/NT - 32 bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition. -UGU To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message