Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 09:56:43 +1000 (EST) From: Gary Roberts <gary@wcs.uq.oz.au> To: SimsS@infi.net Cc: jmb@kryten.atinc.com (Jonathan M. Bresler), jkh@freefall.cdrom.com (Jordan K. Hubbard), hackers@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Newbie mentoring Message-ID: <9504252356.AA18738@wcs.uq.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <199504251946.PAA06332@larry.infi.net> from "Pavlov's Cat" at Apr 25, 95 03:09:56 pm
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Pavlov's Cat writes:
>
> Gary,
>
> As a confirmed "lurker" I am really attracted to your idea about mentoring
> newbies. Sign me up - I've been looking for an opportunity to give back
> some of what I've taken from this forum.
Hi Steve,
Thanks very much for your offer -- it's gratefully accepted!!
Once we get everything organised, I'll be in touch with further details.
> The only problem I see is that, unlike the hard-core -hackers folks, us
> lurkers can make FreeBSD do whatever *we* need, but don't have the broad
> spectrum of knowledge that, say, Terry, has. Take me, fer instance; I can
....
You are too modest. I've seen you post a number of times and you're way
above the true `lurker' class that I'm in :->.
> So my point is this - maybe it'd be a good idea if there was some mechanism
> for passing the buck so an assigned mentor could recognize that the
> question/issue was out of his/her area of expertise and draw another card.
I've already seen Jonathan respond on this and I'm sure we'll have some
sort of super-mentor class for bemused mentors to pass the buck to.
In fact, the thought occurs to me that maybe we should try to categorise
newbies into about three broad classes, eg:-
1. Total newbie -- no prev experience of installing/configuring anything.
2. Unix newbie -- experience with DOS/WINDOWS, OS/2, etc but new to Unix.
3. Not really a newbie -- has unix experience but maybe not *BSD or perhaps
is just struggling with some hardware/software conflict, etc.
Mentors could then nominate for the type of newbie they felt comfortable
with. The rgrimes and terrys of this world would handle #3 types whilst
ex-newbies and true timid `lurkers' might hand-hold #1 types.
Maybe we should have about 3 classes of mentors:-
1. Ex-newbie or timid lurkers who want to help but are short on experience.
2. "I've done quite a few installs/configures now and I'm really starting
to get on top of all this" types.
3. True super-mentors.
I'm copying this to Jonathan and Jordan so they can respond if they wish to.
For everyone's information, offers of help are pouring in and I'm busy
trying to acknowledge them all and take note of all the feedback.
Somewhere in between I'll draft the announcements to get the information
to the masses ....
Cheers,
--
Gary Roberts (gary@wcs.uq.edu.au) (Ph +617 844 0400 Fax +617 844 0444)
4th Floor, South Bank House, 234 Grey St, South Bank QLD 4101 Australia.
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