** On Fri, 05 Apr 2002 23:31:45 +0200 Ralf Ronneburger thought :
**No, I don't think that's the case. I think we turn people off to Linux
**if we give them the feeling, that they alway need the help of some
**"experts" to solve theyr problems.
That is fine for someone who has been on the list a while , and engaged
in the give and take that sometimes happens here. You could have done
both things tho. Good manners aren't reserved for those who look in the
documentation first.
Ben is right, it does turn people off , most especially when they are
new to a list. I run a small Help center and the one thing I get most
from people is they did send a question to a mailing list , in a format
that lets the list users know what/where the problem is . Sometimes ,
people need to start small. ANd a random search on Google or in THE OS
help doesn't always turn up the needed info.
I've had many folks leave the help lists and give up on linux
completely. It takes a while to get up to speed as Linux geek. Giving hte
answer asn a suggestion where information can be found in future. Could
override this feeling that they need to go to some school to get the
learning enough to use any variation of Linux.
we have to remember also, that many lurk on these lists for quite a
while before posting. answereing as you did you might turn off several
folks who leave and you aren't even aware they were there.
linux can no longer afford such losses. WE are in a fight for survival,
wherether you know it or not !
**some exotic package but about the kernel, wich is very well documented
**in the SuSE-Manuals, online, in the annoucements etc.. I
That assumes the writer has been on the list long enough to have
received those announcements. Which BTW can scare the pants off some
folks.
Especially when the list gods decree that it's "Not a trivial "
function to compile a kernal. ( and it isn't !), but someone "smart
enough to have found this list" probably can do it, if they are lead
through it once. YOu forget sometimes the writer of teh manual only
speaks GEEK and that can be a real pita to sort out just what the stuff
means. Usually when folks are helped w/ their questions AND told them
how to find the information in future the next time they come up
against impossible gibberish like RTFM or a paper that is written in
Acronyms w/ none of them explained they will know it's not that they are
stupid, they simply haven't learned Geekspeak yet.
--
j
afterthought : <----- the information went data way <---------------