Hi Bud, Bud Rogers wrote: > 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. To me it sounds, like not only you got lucky, but so got your elmer. I found it a joy to help out a couple of friends who are genuinly interested in Linux and would really read up on the information I've given them. And if you feel that your help is truly appreciated and respected, then helping almost comes natural. Unfortunately, I also had my fair share of people, who just wanted total step-by-step[1] instructions, didn't care for the information I gave them, asked follow-up question, that showed, that they haven't put a single thought into the problem themselves and generally just wanted me to come over and solve the problem for them. This attitude is frustrating and if it hits me too often, I invoke the RTFM. So, my point here is that these communities (the ham community you described, and the linux users) need a high level of mutual respect and willingness. Both the newbies and oldies must be willing to spend some time and effort to improve the community and if they don't it gets frustrating. Eventually the community breaks apart. [1] I don't really have anything against step-by-step instructions, I've read a lot in my learning process and I've written a couple of myself to help out others. I just think that step-by-step instructions should serve as a base to familirize (sp?) yourself with the problem. Once you get it going, you should follow up some of the information. Ciao, Viktor -- Viktor Rosenfeld WWW: http://www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~rosenfel/
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