Re: what's up with all the attitude
On Monday 06 November 2006 16:51, Roberto C. Sanchez wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 06, 2006 at 10:10:34AM -0500, Kamaraju Kusumanchi wrote:
> > On Monday 06 November 2006 10:02, Greg Folkert wrote:
> > > Couple of lists I am on, the matter of factly answers are all
> > > RTFM with exact locations and nothing else.
> >
> > If that is the case, the developers need to rewrite the manual in a
> > way which is understood by others. The content is probably OK but
> > may need reorganization. Getting RTFM questions does not always
> > mean that the reader is/was lazy to search for answers...
>
> Many of the "first reply" messages by Tom Eastep on the
> shorewall-users mailing list are a URL and little else. After having
> seen this for while I see that it is a good approach. In fact, many
> of the "second reply" messages from the users are something like "oh,
> I didn't see that" or "I did not read closely enough."
I don't think much of those who swing RTFM around like a club. I don't
think that's ever helpful.
I started Linux with Slackware 0.99. It's not likely that I would have
even got to the point of a bootable system, and almost certain that I
never would have become a convert, if it hadn't been for the patient
help of a very capable teacher. jjohn was system administrator at a
local ISP. He introduced me to Linux in general and Slackware in
particular. He held my hand when I needed it, and answered a lot of
stupid newbie questions.
Invariably, he would give me a short answer first. "Oh, you just need
to do X." or "You might have a problem with Y. Here's what I would
do." Then he would add, "If you want to know why, this
HOWTO/webpage/manpage will tell you all about it."
In most cases, his first suggestion, X or Y, fixed my immediate problem
and got me past another hurdle. My confidence bolstered by a quick
fix, I was all the more interested in reading the recommended
documentaion to find out why and how it worked. In fairly short
order, looking back on it now, I went from the original clueless newbie
to a fairly confident Slack user. I owe a debt I can never repay to
jjohn. I've been trying to pay it forward ever since.
--
Bud Rogers <budr@netride.net> KD5SZ
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