From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Feb 15 22:16:38 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id WAA12242 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 22:16:38 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mail1y-int.prodigy.net (mail1y-ext.prodigy.net [198.83.19.113]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id WAA12180 for ; Sun, 15 Feb 1998 22:16:27 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from zjhh2@etsu.edu) Received: from lies (slip166-72-245-104.tn.us.ibm.net [166.72.245.104]) by mail1y-int.prodigy.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id BAA07354; Mon, 16 Feb 1998 01:09:22 -0500 Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19980216010916.009109b0@pop.prodigy.net> X-Sender: jhhiggins@pop.prodigy.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.5 (32) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 01:09:16 -0500 To: Sue Blake From: James Higgins Subject: Re: Create newbie site? Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <19980216165204.54980@welearn.com.au> References: <19980215222705.17622@vmunix.com> <34E79B1C.D39B7A7E@aei.ca> <19980216132627.38920@welearn.com.au> <19980215222705.17622@vmunix.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 04:52 PM 2/16/98 +1100, you wrote: >On Sun, Feb 15, 1998 at 10:27:05PM -0500, Mark Mayo wrote: >> On Mon, Feb 16, 1998 at 01:26:28PM +1100, Sue Blake wrote: >> > On Sun, Feb 15, 1998 at 08:49:17PM -0500, Steve Clark wrote: >> > > Hello everybody I am interested in building a complete newbie site to >> > > help the average user and complete beginner to the step over into >> > > FreeBSD. I am just wondering if the site would help and if it would be >> > > used by the general public. >> > >> [SNIP] >> > If a web site were a good idea (and I have reservations), it would need to >> > be done by someone who knows and awful lot about FreeBSD and how to >> > communicate with newbies, who has years of experience in both, and is >> > generally acknowledged as having those attributes. Considering the amount of >> > thankless work involved, I would be inclined to doubt the suitability of >> > anyone who would be willing to take it on :-) >> >> FWIW, myself and Chris Coleman are attacking something similar - simply an >> alternative free source of info for FreeBSD newbies. Our approach is to >> create an online book of sorts, with the possibility of it going to print >> if there was an interested publisher. This probably will never happen, >> and we'd only agree to it if we felt a book were "for the greater >> good of FreeBSD"... >> >> We've actually found that 95% of the feedback we receive (and we've literally >> received more than one hundred responses) is excellent. > >Ah, but now I see that feedback is strongly encouraged, and _looks_ like it >would be given and taken on board. That helps address some of my concerns. Being a FreeBSD (and mailing list) newbie I would love such a site. I had some experience with Linux and decided to try freebsd and found it to be bit of a switch from Red Hat and Slackware. It seemed to me that the single biggest resource was the mailing lists and their archives which can be difficult to find things in at times. >> I have countless mails from newbies in my INBOX thanking us for our >> work, so I'd have to disagree that the work is "thankless". :-) >> It can be quite rewarding actually! > >I hope it remains that way :-) I'd better take a closer look at what you're >doing there. > >The idea of a one stop new user site, or potentially several of them with >different advice, still makes me interested but nervous. I realize that it is a big project, but I think one would certainly be beneficial. Considerations of how new is "newbie" should also be in order. Are we talking newbie in the sense of new to FreeBSD or new in the sense of the college student who decide to play with some sort of UNIX os at home. I am a member of both groups, but I chose linux first. There I lerned a great deal from their system admins guide and network admins guide. Fortuneately, they are very universal and found them very helpful with my transistion to freebsd. Then again for the pure newbie there are LOTS of resources available including thos from the LDP which are very good. James Higgins -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQA/AwUBNOfYC61vqcuQoz6tEQLTwQCgtlLFacx5Npe286tN7ybChf3OW9cAmgOc 8uWsK6vt8mMtYp8H0DCtSggF =0pRn -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message