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Date:      Tue, 2 May 2000 10:36:56 -0700 (PDT)
From:      "William A. Carrel" <cysgod@carrel.org>
To:        advocacy@freebsd.org
Cc:        tcole@wcug.wwu.edu, insane@lunatic.oneinsane.net
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0005021027500.72319-100000@darjeeling.carrel.org>

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I was that that hapless victim on IRC.  While my question was
somewhat inane, and was answered on my own digging through kernel
source code.  I frankly did not anticipate the rudeness with which
my question was recieved, particularly when I bothered to research
ahead of time.

As a regular member of #FreeBSD, I remember how annoying some
questions were, but treatment like this sours me not only to the
channel but to the whole project.  This is the kind of treatment
I'd expect from Theo back in the day, not from FreeBSD now.  I did
cursory research, I didn't find an answer.  I guess I should grep
-R /usr/src before asking my next question.

I realize that there is a #FreeBSDHelp for newbie questions, but
I would presume for more technical questions, or commentary on
new documentation to be included (to answer the question) would be
acceptable.

Sure, the channel ops can do whatever the hell they want, I don't
deny that.  However I find it appalling that people would post to
'advocacy' about how it is acceptable to kick-ban users rather than
politely redirecting them.  And not with topics or bots, rather by
saying, "Someone can answer your question if you join #freebsdhelp".

This cavalier attitude towards beginning (and apparently advanced)
users turns people off the FreeBSD, the BSDs as a whole, and
certainly makes me think twice about contributing to the effort.
(Yes, a PR with code: kern/16318)

Now I'm sure that Mr. Gowdy and others can flame me for being an ignorant
jerk that asked a question in the wrong place, and that I should've known
better, etc. etc..  But just to entertain me, name an organization
where if you dial the wrong extension you get sworn at and hung up
on, rather than transferred to the right number.

-- William Carrel -- Cysgod/EFnet+OpenProjects -- william.a@carrel.org

On Mon, May 01, 2000 at 10:13:27PM -0700, Travis Cole wrote:
>
> Check this out.
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Ron 'The InSaNe One' Rosson<insane@lunatic.oneinsane.net> -----
>
> Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 18:36:44 -0700
> From: Ron 'The InSaNe One' Rosson <insane@lunatic.oneinsane.net>
> To: advocacy@freebsd.org
> Subject: FreeBSD and IRC
> X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0.1i
>
> Just wanna share a little incident that happened today.
>
> <dawn flame suit>
>
> My normal routine is to hang out on IRC and gleen information from the
> ones that what to give it on #FreeBSD and to share what I can to give it
> back.
>
> Today started out like any other day. people asked how to get there
> mouse to work while in thier console, some other guy asked how can he
> get his shell to work when he presses the up arrow key to get the
> previous command, etc. The two items were fielded by the channel in a
> helpful manner with a lot of poking about rtfm and using man pages.
>
> (This is one of the reasons why I enjoy the FreeBSD community)
>
> <check flame suit>
>
> After awhile the channel got a little busier. A guy greeted and asked if
> anyone had heard if such and such a hardware was supported. One of the
> operators asked if he had checked the website. the gentlemen responded
> with a yes and that he also checked the /usr/src/sys/conf/i386/LINT file
> as well. The operator responded with a smart-ass remark and some
> vulgarity. and then banned the gentlemen.
>
> Now I know IRC is not an official place to get help for FreeBSD. But it
> going thru its moments where people are helpful and not. But the thing
> is it is easy to get to and it has some interaction in semi-real time.
> It is a public forum just as much as HTTP and NNTP. With that in mind
> there could be a little hint of advocacy in the channel instead of some
> people with arrogance and the power of the '@'.
>
> Just something to think about.
>
> </dawn flame suit>
>
> Back to IRC I go entering #FreeBSD
> --
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ron Rosson                          ... and a UNIX user said ...
> The InSaNe One                                  rm -rf *
> insane@oneinsane.net                  and all was /dev/null and *void()
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>       (Ducking the spray of saliva as you raspberry the screen)
>
>
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
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>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
> --
> --Travis
>
> "Linux is something for Windows haters, BSD is something for Unix lovers"
> (Heike S., Febr. 98)




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