Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 10:47:41 +1000 (EST) From: Gary Roberts <gary@wcs.uq.oz.au> To: faulkner@mpd.tandem.com (Boyd Faulkner) Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: The Mentors' Club (was Re: Gating hackers ... ) Message-ID: <9504260047.AA18879@wcs.uq.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <9504252229.AA04514@olympus> from "Boyd Faulkner" at Apr 25, 95 05:29:17 pm
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Boyd Faulkner writes: > I'm game, but I have one concern. It might be wise to match up people based Hi Boyd, Thanks very much for your offer -- it's gratefully accepted!! Once we get everything organised, I'll be in touch with further details. > on hardware. Sending me a question about mitsumi cd rom drives is not > going to get an informed answer. I realize that a forms based approach > is a pain in the ass but it would make better matching easier to automate. I'll let others respond on the feasibility of doing something like that. In many ways I don't really see a *burning* need to do this immediately because one of the major aims is to skim off a large fraction of newbie questions into private e-mail and let the developers get on with what we're paying them to do *huge grin*. As long as we skim off a goodly fraction, the system will work. The mentor should be able to direct the newbie towards FAQs, READMEs, etc, or to a super-mentor. As a last resort, the query gets out onto a public list where someone who does know the answer can respond. My guess is that less than 20% of newbie queries would end up needing a true `guru' or developer response. > If not, the ability to route newbies to the proper pool after being > automatically assigned would be OK. I just don't want some poor clod to > bounce around until someone (and remember, we are talking the lurker here) > with the proper experience and hardware gets it. They are more likely to be bouncing around and getting pissed off under the current syatem. Just the fact that someone is *trying* to help should have a huge calming effect. And because we've imposed that extra layer between the developers and frustrated newbies, the overloaded mailboxes must get *some* benefit. No system is ever going to be perfect but our ability to scream *personalised service*, *personalised service*, is sure as hell going to attract a lot of new users and should also make commercial developers sit up and take a lot more interest in porting their wares to FreeBSD. It's a pity we can't patent the concept and stop the Linux camp from jumping on the bandwagon :-> ;->. > You would all be pissed if I posted every question I got here so that I > could answer newbie questions for hardware I don't have. I would. :-) Ahhh, you are being too modest here. I've seen your previous contributions. Someone with your knowledge and skill would be able to dig around and find some suitable info for the newbie without having to bother the developers, even if you knew nothing about the hardware concerned. Remember, it's just one poor little timid newbie that you are helping :->. I'm sure you'll go that extra mile to get his question answered without bothering the developers :->. Go on .... You can do it .... :->. Seriously, thanks again for joining up and thanks for your feedback. Cheers, -- Gary Roberts (gary@wcs.uq.edu.au) (Ph +617 844 0400 Fax +617 844 0444) 4th Floor, South Bank House, 234 Grey St, South Bank QLD 4101 Australia.
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