Re: Documentation and Usability
I a newbie. I've been using Debian about 4y, but I'm a slow learner.
I picked up on this thread because the topic of helping newbies is
particularly dear to me. But I didn't notice its beginning. So, I
decided to look at it in the archives, and I need some help.
I cut and pasted the subject line into the search engine on the
archive search web page and hit return. Back came a page that said
there were no hits for this topic.
What might I have done wrong?
On Sun, Jan 18, 2004 at 10:04:29PM -0700, Monique Y. Herman wrote:
> On 2004-01-17, Mac McCaskie penned:
> >
> >
> > Monique Y. Herman wrote:
> >
> >> Do you really consider basic etiquette to be a debian-specific "bow
> >> down and scrape" requirement?
> >>
> >
> > I consider "basic etiquette" to be very benificial when asking for
> > advice AND when giving it. It is my hope that this conversation (aka
> > debate) will accomplish a few small goals.
>
> What goal, pray tell? Ninety-eight percent of the time, the people in
> this newsgroup who respond to questions are polite and helpful, even
> when the person asking the questions clearly hasn't done the first thing
> to research the problem first. Every now and then, someone appears out
> of the blue to spew forth accusations of purposeful ostracism and insult
> the volunteers who do what they can to make Debian a better system.
> Yes, I agree that it is best to simply ignore a rude individual, but in
> these sorts of situations, ignoring the post will simply reinforce the
> person's belief that the Debian community is some sort of secret
> society. It's hard to respond to a blatant troll, which in fact is what
> this post looked like (especially considering the lack of any further
> posts from the OP), without showing a little ire.
>
> > As a noobie (or newbie? it doesn't matter) to this particular platform
> > I can understand someone elses' frustration in learning how it use it.
> > As a seasoned professional paid to support computer users with any
> > level of knowledge, I can also note the severe "Club" atmosphere some
> > have displayed today. I have learned to seperate my personal feelings
> > of inadaquacies from the frustration of the person asking for help and
> > not take it personally. The end result is a user who has not been
> > be-littled or shamed and is a little more able to take care of
> > themselves (hows that for a win-win situation).
>
> I don't care how you spell newbie, myself. I can understand a person's
> frustration in learning anything. But my understanding of their
> frustration does not mean that I have to put up with someone insulting
> me and the things I care about.
>
> I have no idea what your support job has to do with noting the "Club"
> atmosphere blah blah blah ... But maybe you should note the tons of
> people who post here asking questions, and the hundreds of responses a
> day that appear. Note this: when people ask a polite question and
> someone can help them, they get a polite answer. Did you ever watch
> Sesame Street? "One of these things is not like the other ..."
>
> Nice little jab there. Personal feelings of inadequacy. Heh. I almost
> missed it in all the blather. Look, dude. I learned when I was a kid
> that if I wanted help, I had to ask nicely and remember to say "please"
> and "thank you." Maybe I'm crazy, but I expect others to have learned
> that lesson, and to recognize when that lesson is once again being
> taught.
>
> > Yes, I have received some good advice on this list in the last week
> > (including today) which has been very helpful. Today, I discovered
> > some other comments should go into "useless" catagory.
>
> I'm glad. I'm also amazed that you didn't learn this long ago in other
> contexts and generalize it to this one. All sources of information are
> part signal, part noise.
>
> >
> > What did you learn today?
> >
>
> I learned that I'm better at SSX 3 than I used to be at SSX 3, but
> that my fiance can still beat the pants off of me with one hand tied
> behind his back. And while I got upset that he was able to do in three
> tries what I wasn't able to accomplish in hundreds of iterations, I
> realized that getting upset at him was inappopriate, and I apologized.
>
> --
> monique
>
>
> --
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--
Paul E Condon
pecondon@peakpeak.com
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