Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 22:13:43 +0200 From: Ion-Mihai Tetcu <itetcu@apropo.ro> To: Johnson David <DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> Cc: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD-newbies group is a compromise community. Message-ID: <20040322221343.09bda270@it.buh.cameradicommercio.ro> In-Reply-To: <200403221141.03223.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> References: <1079648282.405a201a64217@savaka.com> <200403221040.12046.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> <405F394D.8090703@daleco.biz> <200403221141.03223.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 11:41:03 -0800 Johnson David <DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> wrote: > On Monday 22 March 2004 11:06 am, Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P. wrote: > > > Finally, is this something we might agree on? > > Technical questions aren't permitted, but > > "your experiences" are.... > > > > Newbie A: "I'm having trouble with foomatic..." > > > > Newbie B: "I had trouble with foomatic, but by > > changing the $bar variable in my $file, I was > > able to overcome this difficulty." > > The problem is that setting the $bar variable in $file might be exact > WRONG answer for the user in question. Newbies by their nature don't > understand the fundamental concepts behind the answer, and will blindly > perform the steps without question. > > For some questions, the wrong answer can be very harmful. The wrong > instructions for setting up XFree86 can physically destroy some older > monitors. Less obvious harm can result by opening up security holes in > the system. > > As much as we want to be helpful to other people, newbies should never > answer other newbie's technical questions. All technical answers should > be coming from experts, and on a list where other experts can instantly > jump in a correct any wrong answers. The hard thing being to define who is / what is a newbie and who / what is not ;-) Not that I don't agree with what you say above. -- IOnut Unregistered ;) FreeBSD user
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20040322221343.09bda270>