Re: OT: google or debian-user?
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
On Wed, Feb 25, 2004 at 02:39:29PM -0400, xucaen@access-4-free.com wrote:
> It is a shame that at times debian-user can be so
> inhospitable to debain users. I think it is unfair to have a
> question answered with "try google" or some other variation
> of RTFM.
And the rest of us here, also debian users, think it's unfair to waste
time on answering the same questions that have been answered ad
nauseum, ad infinitum when we could be getting more interesting
problems solved. Which doesn't mean that we're newbie hostile, it
just means you need to do a little preparation.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
> I was under the impression that the debian-user list was a forum for
> debian users.
It is. It's just not your personal consultant for common, well
documented stuff. But these guys are: http://debian.org/consultants/
> I always search the debain-user archives
> before asking a question and if I don't find an answer then
> I ask my question. Generally I do not do google searches
> unless I am seaking global information such as "is my
> hardware supported under linux".
I would suggest searching the Debian archives by using google. Hint:
Search for "<kewords> site:lists.debian.org" without the quotes.
> But I know that debain does things differently than the way other
> distros do things, (otherwise there would be no need for .deb
> packages, right?)
Don't get carried away, deb exists because it was the right way, not
just to be different.
> so in most cases I figure the problem has something to do
> with a debain specific driver or setting.
Wait, what? When did distro-specific drivers crop up?
> I am rather new to linux in general and have ever only used Debian
> so I am not familiar with what is just specific to debian and what
> is global across all linux distros. I suppose I could have asked "is
> my issue at hand something that is supported differently in debian
> than other distros or do all distros support it the same?" but that
> is even more annoying than asking the question outright.
Google can answer that, as well. If you're not sure where to look,
and searching only lists.debian.org results poorly, then drop the site
argument and replace it with debian, and if that doesn't come up with
anything useful, replace debian with linux. Part of being able to get
the documentation is finding it, so having a working knowledge of a
good search engine is key. You don't need to know every argument, you
only need to know what gets you close enough to find it with as little
manual sifting as possible. Experiment with different keywords. Play
with it a bit until you get a search strategy that works for you.
I've shared mine.
> I concede to RT proverbial FM even if that M is spread across all of
> the known Internet. Who knows? maybe I will never again need to post
> a message to the debain user list. One can only hope...
A good reading strategy on this list, and one that has helped me
maintain sanity and longevity on this list, is to use a MUA that
supports threadds, and delete uninteresting or inflammatory looking
threads outright.
Don't take it personally, but the vast majority of any mailing list
that hits critical mass and goes high-traffic, won't be worth your
time. This is the nature of any high-volume forum, and this is why
any good MUA or news reader supports some kind of thread management.
If tin was more like mutt in look, feel and usage, and mutt got the
kind of thread management tin has, the cross-polination would result
in likely the best possible NNTP client and the best possible MUA...
...ru, n zna pna qernz, evtug?
- --
.''`. Paul Johnson <baloo@ursine.ca>
: :' : http://ursine.ca/
`. `'` proud Debian admin and user
`- Debian. Because it *must* work.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)
iD8DBQFAPbF+UzgNqloQMwcRAiQrAKCKSMqqAvJVy/4bhXlXpvgXaczl1ACgxdOJ
PL9fdSjLVY5yqBKauamZ8C4=
=2hhm
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Reply to: