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Tom Brough wrote: > > For the most part when I have seen questions posted on DCGLUG most > people have been helpful and gracious, and have not resorted to > "RTFM" rants..... but it has happen from time to time here and can > be off putting (even to seasoned users such as myself) , and lets be > honest some people just can't pick up a manual and digest it in the > way that other members of this group can with apparent ease. I think a good point. Although on the other hand, I still haven't yet lost of the habit of asking people before checking with the search engines, old habits die hard. Today I wanted to know if Postfix SMTP transport map supports fail-over for SMTP, this is a pretty obscure thing to want to know. Historically you'd have had to ask an expert, possibly the authors, but guess what someone already did. All good search engines can find the relevant answer given to that question (no , but you can use the fail over relay stuff to do something similar). The temptation to email someone was very strong, but it was ultimately quicker, and I got a very good answer quickly by searching and reading. So we have to learn (and teach) modern information gathering habits. RTFM whilst impolite, carries the essential gem, that if you learn to understand those arcane conventions for what options are required, and how to "man -k", "perldoc -f", "perldoc -q", how to search within a manual page quickly, you'll be teaching them how to fish, not just supplying the next meal. > I know that a lot of people on this group will be appalled that I am > going to suggest this, and I have mixed feelings about it myself, > but I would suggest that we have a questions & answers ONLY email > address that people can subscribe to separately and know that at > least if a post is not answering their question it is answering > someone else's, or a question from a fellow user trying to get to > grips with some facet of GNU/Linux. I was imagining something similar recently -- but couldn't figure out how to structure it. I thought it would be good to have a system that answers questions, records the answer well, and perhaps allows clarifications, and also some sort of immediate peer responses. Since it is often very obvious on mailing lists and newsgroups that; 1) an answer is correct, but they didn't understand the question. 2) an answer is correct, but I wouldn't fix it that way myself. 3) an answer is correct, but if you had to ask the question, the answer will be even more confusing (we are good at this one here, myself included I'm sure). But ideally before the answer is given back to the original questioner, so they have some commentary, or peer review, before they trust it. > I'm sure there are many gems of GNU/Linux wisdom to be found in this > lists archive, but again sniffing them out from the archive takes > time, a more concentrated Q&A mail group might at least speed up the > filtering process. I agree with Anton, the problem with the DCGLUG archive is that geography isn't a good focus for a topic, unless the question is where can I buy a PC in Exeter / Plymouth / Truro, so the answers from the archive will naturally be a bit hit and miss. My answers above came from the Postfix mailing list. But the DCGLUG archive is in the search engines, and it has answered some of my own questions in the past, indeed I've found some of my own answers very useful - so much for human memory. Debian Administration works well for my System Administrative needs (and yes I read my own articles there as well - surprisingly often). But I'm not sure that the level is right for new users. > Apologies if this starts some sort of flame <don garment="fire retardant clothing">Hey, you skipped the one about whether it was easier for your mother to "ask Tom". Is that avenue not working for her?</don> ;) Simon, whose family feel free to ask plenty of questions about non-free software.
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