From owner-freebsd-newbies Thu Jun 18 19:34:06 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id TAA01994 for freebsd-newbies-outgoing; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 19:34:06 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mail.impulse.net (mail.impulse.net [204.188.6.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id TAA01988 for ; Thu, 18 Jun 1998 19:34:04 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mike@merchantsnet.com) Received: (qmail 1360 invoked from network); 19 Jun 1998 02:33:59 -0000 Received: from sb1-61.impulse.net (HELO 708644668) (204.188.6.61) by mail.impulse.net with SMTP; 19 Jun 1998 02:33:59 -0000 From: "Michael P. Sale" To: "Nik Clayton" Cc: Subject: Re: Lists, newbies & support (was: Re: Where to get Windows Internet stuff/ More on Windows & BSD) Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 19:29:05 -0700 Message-ID: <01bd9b2a$07d9fc20$3d06bccc@708644668> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1712.3 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3 Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org >When said newbie finally gets the answer (either because they've worked >it out for themselves, or because someone's provided them with sufficient >pointers (or even a working solution)) do they then write it up and >contribute it back to FreeBSD? I doubt it. I would guess there are three reasons for this though. a. Fear of looking silly and don't think they can really contribute (yet) b. Burried in work with no time c. Slugs > >[ Forgive me, I'm about to reminisce ] > > >If you find something unclear in the FAQ or Handbook then try and improve >it. Messages like "This is unclear" don't really help. Suggestions that >include alternatives (preferably already marked up so the person who commits >it just has to go "Yeah, that makes sense, .") help move >us forward. > >It's generally acknowledged that things aren't perfect. Pointing this out >doesn't really get us anywhere. People actually doing something about it >is what we need.[1] I agree. I actually spent waaaaaayyyyyy too much time in a discussion with the list (Sue) when I was having trouble with a portion in Gregs book. After much wrasslin, I said "hey, if no one else see's it the way I do, I'll let it go". And I did. I still think that part of the book is pretty bad, but I can't argue a case without backup and if Greg was monitoring the thread he didn't speak up. I suppose that I should have taken the case straight to Greg, but I assumed (we all know where that gets you) that he was probably watching a little and as a newbie I was suffering from #1 above. Anyhow, I'm not really sure where your thought was headed. I doubt anyone disagrees with you. I just suspect they suffer one of the problems listed. :-( I also suspect that a newbies-questions group may allow some of the thoughts and input you are looking for. Free thinking unafraid questions tend to generate more thought and input than anything else I've found. Mike To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message