* BobF (FBob@wt.net) [20000401 21:46]:
I think this would be much more palatable to Linux users who lean toward nonconformity and have a distaste for "rules".
You certainly have a point there ;-) I would also tend to put me into that group, but my experience also shows me that some outspoken guidelines do help to avoid hassle. As already stated, this list is bound to increase in volume. And in contrast to the early adopters of Linux, which mostly already had some kind of Unix background or at least a rather solid computer knowledge, I now see more and more People trying to use Linux that would also have a hard time doing some of the more lowlevel Windows stuff. Now before anybody misreads that, let me state up front that this is nothing to be ashamed of and I don't blame anybody for being in that position. Heck, there was a time I also had to look up nearly every command. It's not knowledge that counts but rather the wish to become so. With this shift in user base, which I do notice from sharing an office with coworkers that do installation support, the more basic questions are bound to increase in volume. And with the increasing volume the signal to noise ratio tends to decrease. Now I'd like this list to stay the rather homely and friendly place it is, thanks to all you folks participating. And it's for that reason I'm proposing to come up with guidelines most of us can agree on. This would give those freshly joining the list some hints as to how to make the most out of it and those already longer on the list less reason to leave.
The url where it can be found is: http://www.lemis.com/questions.html
Thanks for the pointer! I'll definitely have a look at it.
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Philipp Thomas