-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On May 22, 2004 03:30, Rob Stallard wrote: > It seemed somewhat cliquey. i do not know if this was intended or not. > No one seemed particularily welcoming, perhaps it was > a tendency to let lurkers lurk. *shrug* It felt somewhat alien and yet > comfortable at the same time to sit and listen to the meeting.
whew! i thought perhaps someone had done or said something that had rubbed you the wrong way; sounds more like a "sin of ommission": not making new people feel welcome as much as they should. it's true that many of us there have known each other for years now, and so it can be easy to just yak with those people... i know something we used to do back in tha' day when i was chairing the meetings was to have new people introduce themselves. when the group was much smaller, everyone would intro themselves as an icebreaker.. but we only had a dozen or two people coming to CLUG events back then... these days we often have that many NEW users... perhaps what would help is to allow those who are new (and wish to) introduce themselves at the beginning of the meeting... it may also be great to have a brief "New attendee question" period at each meeting... ... maybe even a "welcome wagon" group to greet the newbies... > >>guess that there are lots of people that want to use linux, but are not, > >>because of the intimidation factor. > > > >to put the shoe on the foot it belongs on: what are/can you do about this? > > Actually, i find that my linux advocacy skills are lacking, as i have > yet to elicit interest in linux in anyone i've talked to about it. some of us in the group are rather good at that... learning how to do this from others is a great way to improve.. perhaps this would even make a good presentation topic (though hopefully it will be presented by someone who is both experienced and widely successful in advocating Linux =) > I've found that among windows users, there seems to be occasional > recurring references to linux horror stories. Linux horror stories exist. mostly from years past when Linux was a lot harder, and mostly involving people unfamiliar with UNIX who jumped in over their head and did silly things. there are few cures for willful ignorance. > I've thought about handing > out burned > copies of knoppix, but i think that may just add more to the confusion. actually, this is a GREAT thing to do. it "just works", doesn't require installation and is pretty impressive =) i deffinitely recommend the Knoppix route myself. > I certainly found elitism lacking at the meeting, and on the list. yay! =)) > Perhaps I am giving too much weight to an old experience i had on an IRC > channel when i was first > exploring linux years ago.There seemed to be an attitude of: if you dont > already know, we're not going to tell you. This is certainly > disconcerting to newbies. yes, it is. and there ARE groups and individuals who ARE elitist. they are the minority, however, and as the community grows ever more they continue to shrink in representation .. thankfully ... =) > I certainly hope the weather clears up soon. i'm getting tired of the > sun/rain/snow cycles and the pent up energy that comes along with it. i'm with you there! - -- Aaron J. Seigo GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43 while (!horse()); cart(); -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2-rc1-SuSE (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFAr+mc1rcusafx20MRAjlBAKCDjQHgVchY6I/gaWWRfl1D2mPibgCgqpHK DRCDB8wEq5QdI7jilIerw4Y= =gpjW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
