RE: Why mailing-lists? Usenet have been invented, I hear. ;-)
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I was rather taken aback by the response you gave to the fellow who criticized
the mailing list.
Rather than telling him to get lost, might I suggest you would have done better
to have politely educated him as to why a mailing list might serve his needs better?
Let me tell you how I try to approach these things.
I've been programming for fifteen years. I've been using Unix variants of one
sort or another since 1985. I work as a consultant, and I charge my paying
clients a lot of money.
But I'm always ready to help people out when they don't have a clue. That's how
I learned - other people helped me out.
Here's a piece I wrote when a flamewar was taking place at advogato, that was
largely due to the cluelessness of a newbie as well as the brusqueness of the
more experienced:
Can't We All Just Get Along?
http://advogato.org/article/495.html
What I'm trying to get at is that it's the responsibility of the more
experienced people to calmly, patiently educate the less experienced. We are
all ambassadors for Free Software, it's a burden we should bear gladly and not
resentfully.
Large, powerful and rich corporations can afford to hire marketing staff to
pretend to be friendly to their customers while they relieve them of their
pocketbooks. We have no such resources, instead it falls to each and every one
of us to welcome new users into the fold - even if they are rude.
Mike
--
Michael D. Crawford
GoingWare Inc. - Expert Software Development and Consulting
http://www.goingware.com/
crawford@goingware.com
Tilting at Windmills for a Better Tomorrow.
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