On 2006-01-25 0151, Michael Banck wrote: > On Tue, Jan 24, 2006 at 08:02:19AM -0800, Paul Johnson wrote: > > I don't see how opening a web forum only the newbies are likely to use > > benefits the newbies or is fair to the experienced users who volunteer > > to help them. > > People learn quickly. Those who discovered GNU/Linux a year ago and > only got exposed to web forums before might be totally capable of > helping others already, and are more likely to do so on their familiar > media.
I might pitch in, here. Almost two years ago, I have been in the community for almost two years, and in my experience, web forums are useless. Generally, of course. As a new GNU/Linux user, you have some rather recurring questions: - I have this crazy Windows habit -- how is that done in GNU/Linux? - I lack a replacement for this Windows program And, the less trivial: - I can't get this to compile The way I see it, the first two bullets should be covered in some central document. Does Debian have a migrating-from-Windows guide? The last bullet is the interesting one, as some community interaction is required. Rather often, I look back and think, that I would have been so much better off mailing a mailing list with my troubles. I searched the web, crawled forums, and my all-in-all trivial question could more easily be answered at d-u. My problem was, that I was afraid of mailing lists (that is, how the experienced community would react). Once that fear was overcome, I had no trouble using mailing lists. In fact, the superior degree of seriousness is very appreciated. So, IMHO, Debian needs to integrate new users more into the mailing lists -- at least, rather than forking the community. Also, some quick-start links from the download pages would be smart. Most of us use some 10m - 2h on downloading a disc, while sitting more or less idle in whatever working operating system. We could encourage people to jump across a few lightly-read guides? Anyway. Merely my rather unstructured thoughts on this. Anders Breindahl / skrewz -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
