Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 09:59:10 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: Simon Shapiro <Shimon@i-Connect.Net> Cc: "Matthew D. Fuller" <fullermd@futuresouth.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: group assignments from make world. Message-ID: <26899.876329950@time.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 08 Oct 1997 09:15:48 PDT." <XFMail.971008091548.Shimon@i-Connect.Net>
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[Redirected to -chat; we've left the charter of -hackers now] > This I do not understand. One of the major reasons for working on a > project like this, in a professional (vs. hobby, serious as it may be) > capacity, is the open access to the development crew. Which, like all limited resources, must be used wisely, that's all I'm trying to tell you. If you get people to sign up with a "you're on your own with this!" disclaimer, it achieves several important aims: 1. It weeds out those who are truly not *ready* for this challenge and should stick to the major releases (which the developers do indeed do their best to support) until they're more confident in their abilities and have learned more about the various project infrastructure features (like the mailing list search too). 2. It makes those who do commit to this realize that they're essentially skiing off the trails and if they do something foolish, the ski patrol will be by to rescue them only by chance or exceptional charity. Knowing this tends to make one a bit more careful, and that's a good thing. It also gives us the option of leaving you to die in the snow if we really just don't feel like leaving the ski lodge that evening. ;-) 3. Knowing that rescue opportunities are limited and that the territory is dangerous, the wise user will invest just a bit more time in mastering his (or her) equipment and reading up on the subject. If anything can motivate our users to read the docs at all, perhaps it's this. ;) So there's more to this mindset than just trying to deflect too many questions from the electronic equivalent of several thousand people looking over one's shoulder, people also need to go into something like -stable or -current with their eyes fully open, and "yer on yer own, kid." appears to be a time-tested eye-opener. ;) The reality is also that many developers still *do* help anyone with a legitimate question, often devoting many hours to this (like Joerg, our one-man USENET tech support team, or Doug White, our one-man freebsd-questions tech support team!), but it needs to be seen by the users as the charitable donation that it is and no guarantee of any further such support in the future - it's purely take it as you go*. Jordan * Like life. :)
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