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Date:      Sun, 13 May 2001 17:14:44 +1000
From:      Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au>
To:        N6REJ <n6rej@tcsn.net>, freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org
Cc:        freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: I'm leaving
Message-ID:  <20010513171444.E26123@welearn.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <002b01c0db54$e0febaa0$5599ca3f@disappointment>; from n6rej@tcsn.net on Sat, May 12, 2001 at 07:31:55PM -0700
References:  <002b01c0db54$e0febaa0$5599ca3f@disappointment>

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On Sat, May 12, 2001 at 07:31:55PM -0700, N6REJ wrote:
> Due to the overwhelming lack of assitance I have gotten in the
> freebsd-newbies,

That's NOT a place to ask for how-to assistance. FreeBSD-newbies
can help you find documentation or navigate the social norms and
etiquette of the mailing lists. But I don't recall you asking
for help there. Perhaps your mail didn't get through or something.

> questions, and here,

Here you asked about comparison with Red Hat, which is the sort of
thread that experienced list users politely ignore. We're sick of
OS comparison threads and trolls, but if you want them you can get
all of the boring old (to us) repetitive discussions we've had on it
by searching the mailing list archives.

On FreeBSD-questions your question was difficult to understand,
and therefore difficult to respond to. I've just read it three
times and still can't work out what you want. It's not your fault,
because in the beginning you can't know what we call things and
everyone's first questions are always a bit vague. However, I have not
the foggiest idea how to give you any of what you want. Nevertheless,
someone did give a partial response on freebsd-questions. You could
have written to freebsd-questions again saying gently "got no response,
what did I do wrong? what else do you need to know?"

> I am leaving FBSD.  I tried several times to get assitance for my
> install and each time was met with non-responses.

Well if I missed it I'm not surprised if others did too. Have you
got invisible ink in your printer? :-) Nah, we're just very human.
 
> There is one person though that I will give special mention to and that is
> susy.

If you're referring to me, thanks, but I don't think I helped you much.
On the contrary, you helped me with information about my no-name
monitor, for which I am still very grateful.

> But those two folks out of all of you, were the only 2 who
> bothered to take any time to help someone brand new to BSD along. 

Once I tried another free OS. When I asked a question there, I
was deluged with responses from people who spoke with great confidence,
insisting they were 100% correct, and all told me different things.
So I tried them sequentially, and none of them worked. When I asked
again, the same thing happened. No peer review, no quality control.

That is much less likely to happen with FreeBSD, because ALL
questions are centralised in freebsd-questions. If someone tells
you the wrong thing by mistake, someone else will follow up pretty
quick with a correction. You get quality, not quantity. If you're
used to getting it the other way round, it can look like you're
being ignored and it feels like hell. But in the end, it's better.

> If you EVER hope to make FBSD the leading Unice, I suggest you learn
> how to prevent this in the future.  As a person who has spent 25 yrs
> in this biz I'm not easily swayed away from my endeavors, but I
> refuse to pound my head against a brick wall.
> Good luck to you all

Some people will take that as a parting insult, but I know that you
meant it in the best possible way. It is a pity more people don't
stop to give feedback before they go. Thank you for taking the time
to do so.
 
> "I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do I do not do but
> what I hate I do"

Then don't :-)  Give it another shot, and next time complain gently
in the form of questions _before_ we get the chance to upset you.
I believe it's not possible to write a coherent replyable email
while feeling upset or annoyed.

I'm copying this to freebsd-newbies, because one important role
of -newbies is for discussing the community aspects of these kinds
of situations and how to get over those humps as a newbie.
Any responses should probably go to just one list or the other (and
a cc to Troy of course), depending on the nature of its content.

-- 

Regards,
        -*Sue*-
 

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