Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 20:45:51 -0500 From: andu <undo@cloud9.net> To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD Newbies First Aid Kit Message-ID: <00030321165900.00428@ydl.andu> References: <200003040130.MAA28760@phoenix.welearn.com.au>
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On Fri, 03 Mar 2000, Sue Blake wrote: I'm sure this is meant to help and keep things in order but to me it sounds a little like over medication. A newbie asks questions to get something going, to have some motivation to go on. > FreeBSD-Newbies First Aid Kit > > (This is a regular posting to the FreeBSD-Newbies mailing list. > It is also available at http://www.welearn.com.au/freebsd/newbies/) > > FreeBSD-Questions@FreeBSD.ORG is the place to send all questions about > installing, configuring, running and using FreeBSD. All help requests > are handled by FreeBSD-Questions, including newbies questions. > > FreeBSD-Newbies is different. We don't ask for help or answer how-to > questions. It is a discussion forum for newbies. > > FreeBSD-Newbies provides a place for new FreeBSD users to meet and > covers any of the activities of newbies that are not already dealt > with elsewhere. Examples include helping each other to learn more on > our own, finding and using resources, problem solving techniques, how > to seek help elsewhere, how to use mailing lists and which lists to > use, general chat, making mistakes, boasting, sharing ideas, stories, > moral (but not technical) support, and taking an active part in the > FreeBSD community. I find it rather absurd to have a list where I can ask where I can ask for help. I asked my question, I got a good answer, others benefited too and that's the end of the story. I find it hard to believe that a FreeBsd beginner joins a list just to hang out with other newbies. >We take our problems and support questions to > freebsd-questions, and use freebsd-newbies to meet others who are > doing the same things that we do as newbies. > > One of the things we do together is learn more effective ways to find > help when we need it. Here are some suggestions: > > When something doesn't work the way you expect > > 1. First look at the errata for your release of FreeBSD at > http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/releases/ for the latest information and > security advisories. > 2. Search the Handbook, FAQ, and mail archives at > http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/search.html > 3. If you still have a question or problem, collect the output of > `uname -a' and of any relevant program(s) and email your question > to FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.ORG. > > Mailing lists > > When you have a problem that you can't solve by yourself, there's only > one support mailing list and that's FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.ORG. > FreeBSD-questions helps with installation and basic setup as well as > more general and advanced questions. > > You don't have to actually join freebsd-questions before asking a > question there. Replies to your question will normally be sent to you > personally as well as to the list. Just make sure you have read and > followed the guidelines for posting, because you might find them > different to what you're used to. If you do subscribe to > freebsd-questions you'll have the advantage of seeing all of the > recent questions and their answers. > > Before you post to FreeBSD-questions, please read the guidelines at > http://www.lemis.com/questions.html Many of the people who answer > FreeBSD-questions are very knowledgeable, but they get frustrated when > they get questions which are difficult to understand. > http://www.lemis.com/email.html is worth reading too. > > If you're not sure that you can follow these guidelines, come back and > ask the other newbies for help on how to post an effective question to > the support mailing list. > > Maybe your question has been asked before. If you search the mailing > list archives at http://www.freebsd.org/search.html first you might > get the answer right away. It's always worth trying. > > Other mailing lists > (http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/eresources.html#ERESOURCES-CHARTERS) > cover specialised areas and many are more developer-oriented. You'll > need to read their charters carefully before participating, but it's > probably a good idea to ask on either -newbies or -questions for > advice about where to post a more specialised question. > > FreeBSD-announce is a very low volume read-only list for occasional > announcements, such as notice of new releases, and the Really Quick > Newsletter. It's worth subscribing to FreeBSD-announce too. > > Manuals > > You'll always be expected to show that you have made some effort to > use the available documentation before asking for help. That's not > always as easy as it sounds! > > If you know what documentation you need but can't locate it, send a > brief query to FreeBSD-questions. If you don't know what you need, > always have trouble finding it, or can't make any sense of it when you > do, ask some patient newbies to steer you in the right direction. > > Anyone interested in writing or reviewing documentation for FreeBSD is > encouraged to join the FreeBSD Documentation Project. Details are at > http://www.freebsd.org/docproj/docproj.html > > Other resources > > A resource list is available at > http://www.freebsd.org/projects/newbies.html to help new and > inexperienced FreeBSD users to find relevant information quickly. It > includes books, on line documents and tutorials, and links to web > pages that other newbies have found useful for learning. If you have a > suggestion for good material to be included, please write to > freebsd-newbies and tell us about it. > > But I have seen people asking questions here! > > It is quite common for people to send the wrong kind of post to a > mailing list. Because we're newbies it'll certainly happen here from > time to time. The best thing to do if you see a message that doesn't > belong on a list is to ignore it. There's always someone around whose > job it is to sort these problems out privately. > > The posts to the lists go straight through, whatever their content. It > is going to be confusing for a little while because we're all newbies > so we all make mistakes. That's OK. > > One thing we're going to see a fair bit is people posting questions, > believing they're doing the right thing by posting here as newbies, > not realising how it works. If someone answers those questions the > situation will snowball. There's nothing wrong with helping someone to > redirect their question to freebsd-questions, but please do so gently. > There's nothing wrong with the occasional mistake either. > > So all questions, requests for help, etc still go to freebsd-questions > as usual. Ours is more of a discussion group, a place where newbies > can relax with other newbies and focus more on our successes than on > our temporary imperfection. We can talk about things here that are not > allowed on freebsd-questions. We're also a bit freer to make the > mistakes that we need to make in order to learn. -- Regards, Andu To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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