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Date:      Tue, 02 May 2000 18:29:17 -0400
From:      John Papalia <john@jpepconsulting.com>
To:        jgowdy@home.com
Cc:        smkelly@slashnet.org, insane@lunatic.oneinsane.net, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD and IRC
Message-ID:  <4.3.1.2.20000502181715.00ab1de0@mail.jpepconsulting.com>
In-Reply-To: <002901bfb44b$658c3ea0$5a5d0418@vista1.sdca.home.com>
References:  <20000501183644.A75942@lunatic.oneinsane.net> <000901bfb3f8$c6d6f220$5a5d0418@vista1.sdca.home.com> <20000502005033.A68966@edgemaster.zombie.org> <4.3.1.2.20000502103522.00ab5320@mail.udel.edu>

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> > What's with the "get a clue" campaign?  The FAQ on freebsd.org says that
> > #freebsd is NOT a tech support channel, however it makes NO mention that
> > there is a channel called #freebsdhelp.
>
>Oh, so that makes it ok to go into #freebsd ANYWAY and ask a bunch of
>questions, even though the freebsd.org FAQ states that it is not a help
>channel.

Simply put, yes.  It states it's not a tech support channel, however it 
doesn't say that tech questions are forbidden.  This can be CLEARLY 
illustrated by the fact that on several of m        "channel ownership" 
comes into play, you set yourself up for the "inconvenience" of "stupid 
newbie questions" as you've put it.  If the ChanOps can have technical 
discussions, expect the non-chan-ops to expect to be allowed to as well.

And yes, I CAN understand the irritation of answering the same "stupid 
questions" over and over again - I've been doing it on my own irc channels 
for 9 years now.  Perhaps you should institute what we did - a simple 
greeting bot that checks the "userlist", and if you're not on the userlist, 
you get the greeting with a brief 2 line explanation.  Everyone's problems 
will be toned down then.

I think what stewed my britches and caused me to write in on this issue is 
the fact that all the responses generating from some parties on this issue 
have been extremely hostile and take the tone of the typical "it's my 
channel, so do what I say or screw off" chan-op mentality.

The way I view it is simple - the channel "belongs" to the chan-ops for as 
long as they (can) hold it.  However, in this case the name of the channel 
is also the name of the product.  The name doesn't belong to the chan-ops 
(unless someone actually associated with the project wants to correct me 
here? please?).  So, if you're going to run a channel with a name of a 
product that apparently you support (otherwise why would you be on the 
advocacy mailing list to begin with?), they just think about the fact that 
your actions reflect on the product.  Find a better way to "cure your 
problems" (see above).

Once upon a time, IRC was actually fun.  It would be nice if people 
remembered that whenever they used it....

--John



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