Time to shut down this list?

[Nikolas Britton]

Xian wrote:

>On Thursday 23 December 2004 10:19, Charles Oppermann wrote:
>  
>
>>>>1.  It's not the original charter of the mailing list.  For reference:
>>>>        
>>>>
>>I've always thought this was silly.  All throughout the internet "newbies"
>>implies beginner.  A newbie mailing list regarding an operating system is
>>naturally going to have people posting technical questions.  Even if the
>>newbie is aware of the technical questions mailing list, they may make the
>>choice to post to freebsd-newbies because of intimidation.
>>
>>I understand the purpose of the list is "a gathering place for people new
>>to FreeBSD" to "share [their] experiences with others" and I think that's
>>wonderful.
>>
>>To accomplish that goal then, why not simply have a "freebsd-experience"
>>mailing list?
>>
>>Personally, I think newbies (myself included) are intimidated by the
>>freebsd-questions list and feel they will be more welcomed in a newbies
>>list.  For that reason, I think the freebsd-newbies list should stick
>>around and have it's charter changed to allow technical discussions - with
>>a caveat that they be moved to another list if not newbie oriented.
>>
>>Regardless of what's done, something has to change simply because so many
>>people make the mistake of not reading or abiding my the current charter.
>>Currently newbie's are chastised at the very time they feel most intimated.
>>Instead, they should be welcomed, encouraged and nurtured.
>>
>>I'm glad the FreeBSD organization is discussing this, because it's been
>>painful for me to watch people basically get yelled at for posting.  Might
>>not seem like yelling to someone who subscribes to a dozen or more lists
>>and has tons of experience, but I'm sure the wet-behind-the-ears newbie has
>>a different impression of what is likely their first experience with the
>>FreeBSD community.
>>    
>>
>
>I originally signed up to -questions and -newbies, but was overwhelmed by the 
>volume of mail on -questions and unsubscribed after a few days. I feel much 
>more comfortable with -newbies, especially if I want to ask a very basic 
>question because I know we have all been there at some point.
>  
>
I did the very same thing when I started learning FreeBSD, with FreeBSD 
4.7/4.8.

>I think it is better to tell some people that they should be asking on 
>-questions than close -newbies as really new people may feel intimidated and 
>not ask the very basic questions that this list is for.
>  
>
Agreed, if I can't help them (with a reasonable and (relatively) correct 
answer) here then most others cannot as well, this is when I send them 
on there way to questions, also, because this is a low volume list I 
take the time to research the question first if I not "sure" about the 
answer, this helps them but really helps me to learn the FreeBSD system.

>I remember vividly when I had just installed FreeBSD, it asked for my lo gin 
>so I gave it my user name. Then it asked for a password so I gave it that. 
>But what sort of a question was '%'? I was most worried when 'help' didn't 
>work. I asked this list and anyone who would listen many basic questions that 
>I was wouldn't dared have asked on -questions.
>  
>
Speaking of "help" I have always though this sould at least be an alise 
to man (or "man man", or "man %foo")... but what I really want a clone 
of the MSDOS 6.xx Help system of the same name, when you typed in help 
with no args. it would load a "hypertext" curses program that listed all 
the commands (like "whatis") and then you could select a command for 
detail info about it. anyways... in the DOS world you always type'd 
"help, "help foo", or "foo /?" for help so for most people new to unix 
and freebsd whatis and man are unknow to them.