Hello Everybody... As another lurker and a newbie I take on the challenge to put my two cents in. I too save most posts, thinking I will one day get to where they might help me. I feel sometimes intimidated by the very high skill set that peole on this list have, but on the other hand I see many posts where people help each other in a most excellent way and thank each other accordingly (pat yourselves on your backs people, I mean it). The list is overwhelmingly active, and I like following the many posts, even the OT ones; they are often a humorous break from the ordinary. Some threads I have seen become downright nasty, and as you have acknowledged earlier, these might scare people away. If I was targeted by any such message, I would be gone in no time, and I almost unsubscribed thanx to these. They are definately a reason for me to hold back any newbie questions I might have thought of asking... (this may be both good and bad, since nobody wants to answer the same qeustions over and over...)
I still have not been to any meetings, and I confess, I am chickening out. I think that some posts about how the topics are a bit too advanced may be why. So if there is a very positive take on the meetings and their topics (from a newbie or an experienced persons view), we newbies need to see it on this list (at least in my opinion), I know I so far judge most of the clubs attributes from what I read here. I think the idea of filling out a form after the meeting would be a great idea; you could get a feel for where you stand, not only to improve upon the club, but also to convey to others how it is doing. To summarize, apart from the earlier flames, which I have not seen for a while, my impression of CLUG is decent, with good potential for growing and keeping members and newbies alike. Diana -----Original Message----- From: chris [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 10:09 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: (clug-talk) So I've been thinking. Hi there I realize that this reply is a little late, but better late than never (and us newbies/lurkers were encouraged to speak up, right? :-) I've posted only once and that was kind of an emergency (it was the "Helllppp!" as i'd tried installing mandrake 9.0 as a dual boot on my home machine with xp and had some, er, uhm, catastrophic results!). i believe i've learned from that mistake, however, my linux experimental box is separate from the regular home/shared-with-wife computer... I guess my interest lies in the real basic stuff, like installing, setting up the boot loader (which one to use and why...), how to do the dual boot stuff, and then configuring linux to the computer's abilities. Right now, i've got a pentium 200mhz (mmx!!!) 64mb ram, and 2.2gb hard drive. I've tried red hat 7.0, mandrake 9.0, debian (couldn't get it to work properly- the text installer threw me for a loop), then back to mandrake 9.0 (ease of installation-auto detect) and played with the cluggix/knoppix boot cd. I would like to learn how to optimize it for that machine's speed capabilities and know what I can get away with (ie. kde vs. icewm or blackbox, etc...). I've been on the mailing list for 4-5 months now and have saved just about every post that has come along, with the intention that it may some day apply to me. Most of it is above and beyond my needs or understanding (at this time) but I like to learn and consider these postings a huge database, if you will. I have yet to attend any meetings but would be interested in attending an install-fest, geared towards older/slower machines like pI's and older laptops?... Thanks, Chris Stoesz ps. thanks to all those people that did reply to my urgent post a few months back; i really appreciated it! you guys are great! ________________________________________ On Mon, 26 May 2003 15:04:23 -0600, Curtis Sloan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Well, I was fairly active on the list, now I'm kinda lurking... > > That makes me, what, lactive? :-P > >> but we don't know what you need... > > Heheh... a sabbatical someplace tropical for a start. ;-P But > seriously, I > work in an all-MS shop and I just don't get a lot of time to hack around > at > night -- I guess I could use a job where I work with Linux a lot. ;-) > > Curtis. > > P.S. I missed the last meeting, too. Man, you'd think I'd fallen > _right_ > off the wagon -- but it was my kid's birthday, so I guess I'll just have > to > live with a tarnished attendance record. ;-) > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kevin Anderson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 13:03 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: (clug-talk) So I've been thinking. > > > Just a question... > > How many people are subscribed to this list, and how many attend the > meetings? Would the meeting attenders cover 10% or 90%? > > For the lurkers, please do reply to this. We'd love to offer more, and > it > IS a concern for all of us, but we don't know what you need. You can go > back to lurking after even just a single reply... :) > > Kev. > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jarrod Major" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Monday, May 26, 2003 12:20 PM > Subject: Re: (clug-talk) So I've been thinking. > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Hey Group, > > We do have the CLUG brochure available for people to distribute. I was > very > happy to see a pile of them at Nexus Bookstore on Saturday. I mentioned > this > at the last meeting but I'll repeat it here. If anyone can think of a > place > where our brochures could be placed please let us (The Executive) know > and > we > can get some brochures for you to put there. The caveat here is to not > annoy > the property owner or manager, please get whatever permission you need to > place them. > > I have been toying around with the idea of a questionaire for the purpose > of > determining ways we can improve. A feeler for how we are doing as a > group. > Whether we are filling the needs of our members whether they are new or > experienced users. It appears that this will now be a priority. I would > like > to do something online but I may have a dead-tree copy to hand out at the > next meeting. What are your thoughts on this? I think it is a good > opportunity to have people let us know what they think and get some ideas > in > writing. > > More on that later I guess. > > I agree with what Mel and Jesse have to say. I know that the new folks > are a > little standoffish. It's hard to say whether the new structure of the > meetings is making it more difficult for new people to pipe up. I have > always > felt that the open floor part of the meeting was conducive to this but > maybe > there is more that can be done. > > Speaking of Installfests, I spoke briefly with Kevin at Nexus and they > are > keen to have us back there. We are good for June. I just need to pick a > weekend. Any suggestions? Saturday the 28th is no good for me but every > other > Saturday next month appears to be open for now. > > On Monday 26 May 2003 11:28 am, you wrote: >> Advertising ? >> While this may be true, I think the main point here is how do we come >> across when they read the list and come to the meetings. >> Jesse, you brought up some very usefull ideas and concerns, I hope I >> have >> address at least some of them in the following. >> >> >> At the meetings, after the open public questions are over, there is a > quite >> buzz of newbie like -- good questions I have heard. People may feel >> intimidated by the kind of topics discussed during the meeting, and feel >> too shy to ask there perfectly GOOD questions. >> >> Thats where we should come in ( US hasbeens -- (as opposed to newbies)) >> I believe we have to make it appealing and fun for the new user. It is >> all >> too easy to dive into our special interests, as our eyes glaze over. And >> then I fear we are rapidly loosing them. >> >> I also think this is the key ! If we get this correct ( be good to the > new >> commer ) our club will be unique and thrive. Lots of special interest >> projects can still go on, but help the new commer before he/she can have >> reason to lose heart. >> >> REMEMBER, newbies are NEW, but they ARE SMART, why else would they be >> striving to try out Linux ? >> >> There has been much discussion about RHCE type courses. I see a basic >> course on computers using the PC and Linux for the hands on practical. >> More on this later, I would like the club's feedback. >> >> Any one with me on this? >> >> A good example of a well done course was >> Introduction_To_Minicomputers_by_Digital_Equipment_Of_Canada >> You catch the sort of thing we are after here ? I THINK WE CAN DO IT >> WELL > ! >> >> Again, I say, look after the new commer well, and the rest will fall >> into >> place. >> >> Mel Walters >> >> On May 25, 2003 11:44 pm, you wrote: >> > I think advertising is the key thing here. I was using Linux long >> before >> > I was aware for CLUG, and I have met people who use Linux who I have >> > never seen associated with CLUG. It could be because they just don't >> > know we exist. I also think that many Linux users are already CUUG >> > members and are not looking to join another user group. I think we >> > should be advertising the benefits of our group. Considering >> membership >> > and software is free it shouldn't be a hard sell :-). >> > >> > Jesse >> > >> > On Sun, 2003-05-25 at 21:44, Kevin Anderson wrote: >> > > looking at the questions over the past while, we really don't seem >> to >> > > have any newbies. >> > > >> > > There are about a dozen or 2 of us who already know what we're >> doing, >> > > but very few looking for advice on how to install Linux, or simple >> > > things like that. >> > > >> > > We might jostle over our preferred distro, or ask the occasional >> this >> > > is wierd, what does it mean/how do I fix it. But generally we're >> > > pretty self sufficient. >> > > >> > > I don't really see this as something common among other mail lists. >> > > So I see this as a concern. >> > > >> > > How do we make our group more attractive for people just entering >> the >> > > Linux world? >> > > How do we appear as a more approachable group generally? >> > > How do we market ourselves, so that people in Calgary know that they >> > > should come to this site? >> > > >> > > Should we do a stampede float? Is it too late? I can provide the >> > > truck... >> > > >> > > I have no answers (except the Stampede thing, maybe) but I thought >> I'd >> > > bring this up for other people's opinions. >> > > >> > > Kev. > > - -- > Jarrod Major > GPG Fingerprint: FA4A 1EA3 A0EE A842 07BB 804C 0090 14F6 BE6E DE3D > Registered Linux User: #224211 > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.2.2-rc1-SuSE (GNU/Linux) > > iQCVAwUBPtJa+wCQFPa+bt49AQKR7QP/e9c0FPj6c5utsS7lAHfetEMDfOove86B > zzV7UudvJ6HHs4Nafb03OisDb99V5b7p8bWykp5mYQMXQKRUvVQP11aVb7M+YFa4 > scMH6a0KVmYKlUQEen+zG+uRhKQNVMtyyVglb0+vUcyiD+DzJPHM4ivZURBvNSbu > 64uQp1yuoB4= > =esjc > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > > > -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
