Newbie Question - about newbie user support

[Alphons "Fonz" van Werven]

Passive PROFITS wrote:

> Alphons ... a.k.a. 'Fonz' in the future? (Let me know!)

My skydiving friends (yes, I have other hobbies besides computer stuff)
usually call me Fonz, but either name will do.

A word of warning though:

1) Whereas -chat is (somewhat to my surprise) a relatively low-traffic list,
-questions covers a broad range of topics. So be prepared to receive many
messages, most of which are of absolutely no interest to you (or me, for
that matter).

2) Because of the higher traffic, it's important to carefully compose your
messages so that the right people notice them and feel compelled to respond.
Look for the weekly post by "grog" (Greg Lehey) about getting the best out
of freebsd-questions (it can also be found in the online archives), it's
quite useful.

3) If you ask a broad question, people will most likely just refer you to
the documentation. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because instead of
just saying RTFM (Read The F***ing Manual) they will actually tell you
exactly which documentation you should read and FreeBSD is one of the best-
documented systems I've seen so far. If you need more specific help, you
need to ask more specific questions.

4) I might be opening a can of worms here, but I think it's best not to
mention Windows or Microsoft on -questions if you can avoid it. For some
people those names work kinda like a red rag on a bull and they prefer
bitching about Windows/Microsoft over actually answering your question. Not
everybody is like that, but we do have a few of those people on -questions.
And they are occasionally told off about that, but still...

5) There are many national FreeBSD lists which may or may not be of help,
depending on the amount of traffic. For example, I live just across the pond
in Holland. The Dutch FreeBSD lists still exist but seem to have sort of
died. However, just a couple of years ago the lists were quite active
and often very helpful. Also, being able to use their native language might
be a benefit for some people if English ain't their strong suit. But in our
case, that probably won't be an issue ;-)

Fonz

-- 
All right, that does it Bill [Donahue]. I'm pretty sure that killing Jesus
is not very Christian.
                              -- pope Benedict XVI, South Park episode #158