Re: Thoughts on RTFM
On Thursday 29 November 2001 23:31 pm, Paolo Falcone wrote:
> Depends on the mentality of the user. There are users who are
> willing to help other users, while there are others who'd only
> help if the clueless user has exhausted all means aside from
> reading the manual, some simply help people who are encumbered
> by problems that aren't stated in the manual (there are problems
> and techniques that can't be learned via the manual alone), while
> others simply would give RTFM (the elitists).Maybe we should re-
> assess ourselves as users - we are all newbies (we can't know
> everything). The oldies are actually newbies with experience, and
> have been there (they were once newbies too) where the complete
> newbies are now.
Paolo, I think you have hit upon a key point. The whole RTFM mentality
reflects as much on the RTFMers as it does on the newbies.
Long before I had anything to do with Linux I was into amateur radio. The
ham community has a lot in common with the Linux community. There is a
strong do-it-yourself ethic. The community is mostly self-policing. Hams
who violate FCC regulations usually get hammered by other hams long before
the FCC notices.
But there is also a long, strong tradition of helping beginners get
started. Every ham knows there is a short steep learning curve just to
put a station on the air. Every ham knows a novice is likely to pollute
the airwaves with a few unintended radiations in the process of gettting
started. Every ham remembers the excitement and the difficulty of getting
over those first few hurdles. Most hams are willing to help a novice get
started. Most will answer questions if asked. Many will go out of their
way to help a newbie get started. Some are more willing than others, and
some are more able than others. The few who are most willing and best
able to help a novice get started are known as elmers. Every ham has fond
memories of some elmer who helped him get started.
Some linux newbies are lucky enough to find an elmer to help them get
started. I was. He spent hours on the phone with me, talking me
through my first install of Slackware in the summer of 1995. He spent
more hours on email and ytalk helping me customize and secure my system.
He answered every one of my ignorant newbie questions. He never once
invoked the dreaded RTFM. But every answer came with a reference. He
would give me a short answer to my question along with a pointer to a
HOWTO or web page where I could find the long answer. I always followed
his pointers. I read the docs he pointed me to. His short answers got me
over the hurdles quickly, and the pointers filled in my ignorance. And the
combination brought me up to speed very fast. In about five months I went
from absolute newbie to sysadmin of a local startup ISP. That's no brag
on me. Most of the credit goes to my elmer.
Thank you, jjohn. Thank you.
--
Bud Rogers <budr@sirinet.net>
All things in moderation. And not too much moderation either.
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