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Date:      Sat, 14 Oct 2000 13:26:08 +1100
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        Rick Hamell <hamellr@heorot.1nova.com>, David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com>
Cc:        freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: -newbies
Message-ID:  <20001014132608.A5353@sydney.worldwide.lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0010120654170.16556-100000@heorot.1nova.com>; from hamellr@heorot.1nova.com on Thu, Oct 12, 2000 at 08:34:20AM %2B0000
References:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0010120654170.16556-100000@heorot.1nova.com> <39E6E839.3A0EC2B6@acuson.com> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0010120654170.16556-100000@heorot.1nova.com>

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On Thursday, 12 October 2000 at  8:34:20 +0000, Rick Hamell wrote:
>
> 	FreeBSD-newbies needs to be removed. I've been on it since it was
> created and can say that it is not living up to it's orginal purpose. If I
> remeber right, and a quick check of the archives seems to confirm,
> -newbies was created only if no questions were asked there. In the last
> year or two it has been a low-traffic list. Most every post across it has
> either been a cross-post, OR a question! Despite my and several other's
> efforts to keep it on topic, and questions posted where they belong, it is
> somehow attracting questions. Many of which are not even close to being
> newbie questions!

Indeed.  I've been watching this with some concern.  A bit of
background: newbies arose from some discussions Sue Blake and I had
about traffic on -questions.  She voiced the opinion that the topics
were too intimidating for real newbies, and that we needed a different
list.  I disagreed, but in the end suggested we try it for a while.
In addition, I promised not to answer any questions on -newbies.  For
a while, every time somebody asked a technical question on the list,
Sue would get up and redirect them to -questions, but she hasn't been
doing that lately.


On Friday, 13 October 2000 at 10:47:21 +0000, David Johnson wrote:
> Rick Hamell wrote:
>>
>>         FreeBSD-newbies needs to be removed. I've been on it since it was
>> created and can say that it is not living up to it's orginal purpose. If I
>> remeber right, and a quick check of the archives seems to confirm,
>> -newbies was created only if no questions were asked there. In the last
>> year or two it has been a low-traffic list. Most every post across it has
>> either been a cross-post, OR a question!
>
> Recheck your archives. Questions are allowed, just not technical
> questions. Questions like "how to configure X" are a no-no, but
> questions like "what window managers should I check out" is okay.

Right, but the boundaries are fuzzy.  First question: Which wm.
Reply: fvwm2.  Next question: How to I get it to give focus to the
windows automatically?  See the problem?

> Perhaps the problem is that the name is wrong. In every other set of
> mailing lists, -newbies is for newbies with questions. Maybe the
> name -newbies-chat would indicate that the list is for newbies, yet
> not for questions...

That sounds reasonable.

Greg
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