frantisek holop wrote:
unfortunately there is no real community around openbsd. at least
i dont see one -- one where there are people without cvs commit.
if you don't have cvs commit, you are a nobody that's what misc@
will teach any newcomer using iron and fire. i try to be part
of a community but the devs say you are nobody and should be glad
that you can use this stuff.
Have you noticed how many posts now start with something along the lines
of 'OpenBSD is really good thanks guys' before asking a question?
I have to agree with you, at least in part. I have been using OpenBSD
for at least 5 years and have found it to be an excellent product. It
has never let me down and has been well worth the money.
But posting to the mailing lists has been an entirely different
experience. When I have a problem I usually try for days to work it out
on my own I read all the man pages that might be related and try plenty
of google searches. Then when posting I try and put in all the
information I can. But often the response is glib, terse or simply non
existent, and when I've asked more than one (related) question in the
post then usually only one will ever be answered.
The real shame is that I often see questions on here that I think I
could answer, but just don't feel it's worth getting involved.
I do understand that reading and answering all the newbie questions on
the list must be very hard work and it's all done voluntarily I aBut I
do believe that if people on this list were a bit more understanding
then the general opinion of OpenBSD itself would be greatly improved.
There are a few typical things that tend to happen on here:
People miss things that are obvious to other people. We're all human. If
you kindly pointed out what I've missed I'll probably realize how
obvious it is and be quite embarrassed. Nevertheless you will have
helped me a great deal for not a lot of effort on your part.
Requests for new functionality don't deserve to be met with 'we're too
busy code it yourself' or similar. Don't you want to know what features
people might be interested in? A request for something else doesn't
Anything that 'has been discussed on this list endlessly before' should
probably be in the FAQ. (Even if it's about how something works or the
merits of the particular approach taken.) If you don't follow the list
closely there's very little chance of you finding the previous threads.
(Of course if it is in the FAQ or can be found with a simple google
search this doesn't apply.)
Ill thought out patches (usually security related) It wasn't a good idea
of him or her to think that they know better than someone who's spent
years working in the area and the effort of patiently explaining all the
places where they've gone wrong is likely to be huge. But still they are
just learning. Just say a brief 'this is not a good idea because...' and
leave the thread alone.
Unfortunately the people who disagree with me will have already stopped
reading this thread.
Mike
