From owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 22 12:11:33 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 94AFE16A4CE for ; Mon, 22 Mar 2004 12:11:33 -0800 (PST) Received: from buh.cameradicommercio.ro (unknown [81.196.25.19]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5038643D45 for ; Mon, 22 Mar 2004 12:11:33 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from itetcu@apropo.ro) Received: from it.buh.cameradicommercio.ro (it.buh.cameradicommercio.ro [192.168.0.10]) by buh.cameradicommercio.ro (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5EA83609F; Mon, 22 Mar 2004 22:10:52 +0200 (EET) Received: from it.buh.cameradicommercio.ro (localhost.buh.cameradicommercio.ro [127.0.0.1]) by it.buh.cameradicommercio.ro (Postfix) with SMTP id 2DC2B130; Mon, 22 Mar 2004 22:13:44 +0200 (EET) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 22:13:43 +0200 From: Ion-Mihai Tetcu To: Johnson David Message-Id: <20040322221343.09bda270@it.buh.cameradicommercio.ro> In-Reply-To: <200403221141.03223.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> References: <1079648282.405a201a64217@savaka.com> <200403221040.12046.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> <405F394D.8090703@daleco.biz> <200403221141.03223.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.9.10claws (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd5.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD-newbies group is a compromise community. X-BeenThere: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Gathering place for new users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 20:11:33 -0000 On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 11:41:03 -0800 Johnson David wrote: > On Monday 22 March 2004 11:06 am, Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. wrote: > > > Finally, is this something we might agree on? > > Technical questions aren't permitted, but > > "your experiences" are.... > > > > Newbie A: "I'm having trouble with foomatic..." > > > > Newbie B: "I had trouble with foomatic, but by > > changing the $bar variable in my $file, I was > > able to overcome this difficulty." > > The problem is that setting the $bar variable in $file might be exact > WRONG answer for the user in question. Newbies by their nature don't > understand the fundamental concepts behind the answer, and will blindly > perform the steps without question. > > For some questions, the wrong answer can be very harmful. The wrong > instructions for setting up XFree86 can physically destroy some older > monitors. Less obvious harm can result by opening up security holes in > the system. > > As much as we want to be helpful to other people, newbies should never > answer other newbie's technical questions. All technical answers should > be coming from experts, and on a list where other experts can instantly > jump in a correct any wrong answers. The hard thing being to define who is / what is a newbie and who / what is not ;-) Not that I don't agree with what you say above. -- IOnut Unregistered ;) FreeBSD user