Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 09:17:40 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: neal.tillery@cp.Novartis.com Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Questions [was: What do newbies want?] Message-ID: <19980417091740.13877@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <199804162208.AAA14864@mta3.is.chbs>; from neal.tillery@cp.Novartis.com on Fri, Apr 17, 1998 at 12:01:42AM %2B0200 References: <199804162208.AAA14864@mta3.is.chbs>
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On Fri, Apr 17, 1998 at 12:01:42AM +0200, neal.tillery@cp.Novartis.com wrote: > > I can understand someone's frustration at just answering one question > in depth, only to have someone else ask it a week later. When I ask a > question I want to make it clear that I have exhausted all other means > of fixing the problem and freebsd-questions is my last resort. For > example, I have a problem with PPP on my home computer. This is not > the run of mill PPP problem. I've tried to search the Mailing List > archives and Newsgroups, but because the problem is so specific and to > amount of posts on PPP in the archive, its frustrating to find what I > need, if it even exists to start with. Brian Somers has a good one-stop-ppp-shop somewhere at http://www.awfulhak.org which points to all the good helpful stuff. I'll check what the proper URL for this page is. > I think a better explanation of the search system on the FreeBSD site > and how to utilize it to gain more precise information would be a good > place to start. The Help section doesn't cut it; basic AND and OR > operators are not enough. Something more powerful is needed. This > would benefit both the newbies and question mailing lists. Newbies > can get the answers to there question easier. Those questions that > newbies ask are more then likely something new or something not easy > to fix for a new user with the given material they have. If there is > something like this, it needs to be announced more often. If not, > then I'd be willing to write up "A New Users Guide to Mailing List > Searches". You make some very good points about the mailing list archive search. The good news is that all of these problems have been identified and our database experts are working on them right now, determined to come up with a much improved search facility. The bad news is that it's a big job and it might take a bit of time to do it the best possible way. I guess we just have to use it however we can for now, and not worry about documenting it too much until we see how the new one works. After whining about it for ages, I've had some good success with it lately. Pot luck? Or was it listening? :-) -- Regards, -*Sue*- find / -name "*.conf" |more To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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