Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 22:30:59 +0100 From: Nik Clayton <nik@nothing-going-on.demon.co.uk> To: "Michael P. Sale" <mike@merchantsnet.com>, Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Lists, newbies & support (was: Re: Where to get Windows Internet stuff/ More on Windows & BSD) Message-ID: <19980618223059.28822@nothing-going-on.org> In-Reply-To: <01bd9a6f$a829c900$4806bccc@708644668>; from Michael P. Sale on Wed, Jun 17, 1998 at 09:14:58PM -0700 References: <01bd9a6f$a829c900$4806bccc@708644668>
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On Wed, Jun 17, 1998 at 09:14:58PM -0700, Michael P. Sale wrote:
> When posting to a newsgroup such as questions, anyone with any sense wants
> to have looked everywhere and done everything possible before going to the
> list. ( I think most of us appreciate the time many question answerers spend
> there) The problem with that again is that the information is VERY HARD to
> dig out and track down. It's not like linux with lots of books and
> references that are handy and can be gone through before posting.
> For someone that does not have hours (literally) to do such searching, this
> process becomes not a process of fun and adventure, but pain and agony. Not
> all newbies are going to stick through that pain and agony simply because
> they read about what a powerfull secure OS FreeBSD is.
When said newbie finally gets the answer (either because they've worked
it out for themselves, or because someone's provided them with sufficient
pointers (or even a working solution)) do they then write it up and
contribute it back to FreeBSD?
[ Forgive me, I'm about to reminisce ]
The first time I set up user PPP it took me a couple of days. There were no
user PPP entries in the handbook and the man page was considerably worse
than it is now. Thanks to help from a few people on the mailing list I got
things running.
About a month later I submitted a plain text handbook entry for it. Jordan
asked me if I could format it using LinuxDoc. Using the other documents
in the Handbook as templates I managed to do that, and it was then
committed for me.
It was short, incomplete, and only really handled the specific case that
I was dealing with, but it was a start. Almost immediately I got people
mailing me with suggestions, questions and additions, and the section
was improved. By my count 11 other people have worked on that document
since I submitted it 2 years ago, and it doesn't resemble my original
writing much. But it was a start, and it allowed other people (who perhaps
didn't have time to write something from scratch, but who could work
on someone else's foundation) to improve it.
The point? Well, apart from the fact I'm a really, really great guy :-),
to paraphrase _Ask not what your documentation can do for you, ask what
you can do for your documentation_.
If you find something unclear in the FAQ or Handbook then try and improve
it. Messages like "This is unclear" don't really help. Suggestions that
include alternatives (preferably already marked up so the person who commits
it just has to go "Yeah, that makes sense, <patch> <commit>.") help move
us forward.
It's generally acknowledged that things aren't perfect. Pointing this out
doesn't really get us anywhere. People actually doing something about it
is what we need.[1]
N
[1] That's not directed specifically at you, more a plea to everyone else
on the mailing list. You are needed. If you've understood something
that you thought was poorly documented, *please* put finger to keyboard
and submit improvements.
--
You are in a maze of twisty signature files all the same.
--
You are in a maze of twisty signature files all alike.
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