Robert, > So, IMHO, I believe that: > 1. No question is too stupid. Someone who is a member of > our community or wants to join it is participating in that > community. We do not want to act like a high school > clique.
Agreed - and I honestly think that was NOT the intention of the original poster. He merely gave some (excellent IMHO) pointers on how to get the answers to questions yourself or how to ask them properly. This is not acting like a high school clique. If the teacher gives you help on an assignment, does he/she give you the answer or explain how to find the answer? Finding the answer yourself is most definately the best way to remember it. I don't recall any time I've felt a question has been jumped on for being stupid. Sometimes the question asker doesn't listen or try what the other posters try to explain for him/her to do, and that annoys me no doubt, but that's just laziness, not stupidity. Laziness honestly does annoy me. > 2. If you know a question has an answer that is easily found > provide the relevant search term without belittling the person > who had the temerity to ask a question. Many people of this > list are very good at this response. Agreed again. This is why I like the other posts on this subject. I don't see anything wrong with telling people doing assignments (to use that analogy), where the library is. In fact I commend it and wish it was standard procedure when joining this list that a welcome e-mail comes up which also explains exactly this. And maybe a reminder every month couldn't hurt either in the scheme of things. > 3. Remember that things simply are not as easy on RedHat > as they are on Winows. I've been in IT for 18 years and am > (REALLY) intelligent and this RedHat migration has not been > easy for me. I am on my third clean install on one of my test > servers. If we demand that every Linux acolyte spend an hour > or to looking for information we can provide in a few seconds > then we will restrict the growth of our community. There is > power in numbers. Fair call, but please don't make the old Windows comparison. Linux and it's community WILL grow. There's no question about it. I'm in IT support myself, but with over 50% of the clientelle I've got, I would (at this point) NEVER suggest those Windows users migrate to Linux. They have a hard enough time learning the concept of directories and 'where the stuff goes' for example. Most people just want to get on the net and chat with relatives half-way across the world, and for that reason, do not want to learn the ins and outs of how to compress files as another example. Windows is just good enough for that kind of persona, and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone to support that same user in a Linux environment. Having said that, the Linux community will grow with the younger generation of more computer literate people. This is a good thing. Linux is not for everybody, but at least the people who really WANT to step away from the other OSs are the ones which are stepping into Linux. And because they know the reasons behind moving over to Linux, they are prepared for a little hardship to get there, and are mostly willing to learn how to get things done. So, in summary, I think the original poster was right on the money. No, we will not belittle people if we can possibly help it, but in all fairness, they have to make a genuine attempt to get at the answer themselves. I think it's like over 200 messages a day we get (correct me if I'm wrong), and I answer what I can in what little time I get during the day, but most answers are indeed referring to google, TLDP or the like. This is not being mean, but practical. Otherwise, indeed, we will spend all day re-solving fixed problems. --- Edward Dekkers (Director) Triple D Computer Services P/L -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
