Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 00:31:07 -0500 (EST) From: Tim McMillen <timcm@umich.edu> To: David Talkington <dtalk@prairienet.org> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: free b.s.d. and networks Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.4.10.10011280012180.9015-100000@qbert.gpcc.itd.umich.edu> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0011272239060.929-100000@sherman.spotnet.org>
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On Mon, 27 Nov 2000, David Talkington wrote: > George Reid wrote: > >On Mon, 27 Nov 2000 Trikers3@aol.com wrote: > >> I need to know the answers to some questions for a presentation I must do on several operating systems. > > > >Try reading the website - www.freebsd.org > > [treading lightly] Ok, not to contest your point, but ... it occurs to > me, having seen several innocent inquisitors bitten this way, that > many people may assume that "questions@freebsd.org" leads to a > vendor's help desk. Given that assumption, and not knowing anything > about FreeBSD, or about open source software and the nature of its > community, let alone the fact that email to that address was being > broadcast to that community, an unsuspecting newcomer might come away Yes I agree. I find it really strange that the freebsd-questions address is listed all over the website with most places not even mentioning that it is a public mailing list. I used to get frustrated that people would send SO many subscribe messages and such to Freebsd-questions, but what can be expected if there is no mention of etiquette or method of subscribing in 95% of the times the freebsd-questions list is mentioned? It doesn't even mention how to subscribe at http://www.freebsd.org/support.html#mailing-list In fact, most of the places it is mentioned it says email any questions to freebsd-questions. The way it is stated in many places seems like it is the project's question list, not a public mailing list that everybody gets. If you hadn't noticed this check back through the webpages and you'll see it. I would have just sent this to freebsd-doc but I wanted to see if there was some agreement before doing so. I think three things would make an improvement. 1. There should at least be a mention of etiquette near any mention of sending questions and 2. More prominent placement of the instructions for subscribing and 3. Say that it is a public mailing list. Even though there will always be people that will not read instructions, right now you can't fault anybody because the instructions for subscribing and etiquette are hard to find even if you are looking for them. I think this would increase the quality of the list a bit. I mean there are at least 50 subscribe messages sent each week it seems. Thanks for reading, Tim To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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