On 16 Nov 1997 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >From a recent posting on comp.os.linux.setup:
>
> > Support from the Debian list was practically non-existant. One reply came
> > on the mailing list in response to a question: not very helpful.
>
> This guy dumped Debian in favor of Red Hat.
Those choices are available to us all, and he is the only one who can
judge which suits his need. I would never try to make that decission for
him, even though for myself there is no place else to be.
For the record, I maintain several packages for Debian, have been around
for a while, hang out on debian-user to smooth the path of others when I
can, and have a real life that drags me away from time to time.
>
> When I see questions about Debian in the newsgroups I usually email an
> offer of help. Often the only help I can offer is the suggestion to ask on
> debian-user. Often the response is "I tried that but nobody answered me".
>
You should ask if they were able to subscribe. When I answer questions on
debian-user, I always reply to the sender and cc the list. Often, more so
lately, my message goes out on the list, but the direct reply get's
bounced back to me. At that point it becomes non-trivial to be of any
assistance.
> Maybe debian-newbie is needed after all?
This would not solve the above problem. Splitting lists, hardly ever does
what it is intended to do.
There are several reasons why some requests go unanswered. For me there
are some questions I can't answer, because I don't understand just what
the author is trying to say and can't fathom an answer. I am always
impressed when someone else, being more sensitive/attuned than myself,
provides an on target answer. (The answer makes clear what the question
was.)
As I am a limited human, there are some messages that I just plain miss in
the flood of other messages. This becomes increasingly difficult when
there is a volumous, irrelevant, thread (or two) going on at the same time
that you post your request for help. Even though I work harder at those
times to look for "user" questions, I know I miss some in all the chaff.
Of course there are other reasons for not answering a question. I have
worked with this distribution for quite a while now, and, although I know
quite a bit about several useful areas of the distribution, there are
large territories of which I am near totally ignorant. At this point it is
not clear that I will ever be able to grok it all, nor do I have any real
interest in doing so. To get to whatever point I was going to make here,
the volunteer nature of this distribution means that not everyone can, or
is willing to, answer any arbitrary question that comes down the pipe.
While this is regrettable, I am certain that I couldn't fix it if that
were all I worked on, and I have no intention of focusing my life that
narrowly ;-)
On a similar vein, often the best answer I can give, is a pointer to some
documentation, or a method of attacking the problem (without any real
solution). How useful these answers are to the individual involved depends
on that individual, and is hard for the person answering the question to
judge, either before hand or afterwards.
My perception of the level of support comes from the fact that, more than
half the time when I start to answer a question I find at least three
replies have already been made. (often more) It is a rare occurance when,
under those circumstances, I find none of the replies to be quite
adequate. On the rare occassions that that seems to have happened, I will
add my two cents into the pot.
For the other half of the questions, I do my best to provide assistance.
When this is not possible due to my ignorance, I continue to look out for
any answers to the question so that I might be able to provide that
assistance in the future. I admit that sometimes I see no answers. I
always hope that someone has answered him in private, or he will ask
again, if there is still the need for help.
All of the above (I have just realised) has been couched in terms of my
own, personal, experience, so I'm sure that I don't see all the angles
here, but I can make a few recommendations:
1. Sign up on debian-user. You can't expect a single posting to
the list to magic a solution into your in-basket.
2. Be clear on the particulars of your problem and be specific
about the variety and type of your hardware. These can often be
importatant when you least expect it. Questions like, "Why is
my Debian system broken?" are guaranteed to recieve few useful
replies.
3. If your problem is related to a specific Debian package, or a
small set of packages, going directly to the package maintainer
will often provide the cheerful answer that is sought. (Find
the package maintainers email address with dpkg -s <package>.)
4. Be persistant! So your message got no reply! Try again! Often
recourse to item 2 will make the second attempt more
successful. Always keep in mind that there are other reasons
for a failure to answer than disinterest. Sometimes everyone
gets up at the same time to go to the bathroom ;-)
5. When all else fails, fall back on your own skills and
resources. Sometimes, if you continue to investigate you will
discover, for yourself, just what the problem is. This is
always more satisfying than the gift of a solution. Even when
you can't arrive at a clear solution on your own, as the
"technician" on-site, you are the most likely to notice
something useful to the off-site support.
In conclusion, while not all of the developers hang out on debian-user, a
fair number do so. It is not always possible for a new user to tell
whether a developer or a user is answering their question, so many times
folks go away with an answer, but an unsatisfied feeling. I suspect for
some the name debian-user implies that only users subscribe to the list,
making it a 'chat room'.
I also wish to thank the many "experienced" users, who hang out here and
help new users get accustomed with the lay of the land. Their contientous
attention to these new users is as valuable to the Debian distribution as
any of the other varied contributions of the developers.
Finally, just because a question has been answered 500 times, doesn't mean
that the five hundred and first questioner has no right to the answer. If
you get tired of answering the same question over and over, save it in a
file and start your own faq. We need all the help we can get with
documentation.
Thanks for your time,
Dwarf
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