On Sat, 2006-04-22 at 18:39 +0100, Jason Meers wrote: <snip> > The list can be intimidating to new users.
Strictly OT, but related... I started to learn to scuba dive in 1999, by joining the club at the university where I worked. I had only ever done a try dive, so it was completely new to me. There were a small number of very experienced members of the club whose general role was perceived by the newer members to be trainers, instructors or leaders. On a number of occasions they had (with good reason, mostly) to resort to what most of us regarded as intimidating language or behaviour, simply by going off into technical discussions or talking about (or doing) dives which were way out of the rest of our experience. Sometimes the equivalent of RTFM would be mentioned, in as much as you can't stay a trainee your entire life - you have to get on and learn stuff yourself; appearing to continually ask questions before attempting to find the answer yourself is guaranteed to eventually get up someone's nose. Those who stuck with it and continued diving in turn became the more experienced members, and on occasion we now turn to each other and talk about things which will appear like we're excluding the less experienced people, or telling them to go find out for themselves. It's worth remembering that the experienced people, whether on this list, in a diving club, or anywhere else also have their own lives/mail systems/whatever to get on with, and can't spend all day every day holding other people's hands. We all have to start somewhere, and need to remember that when we have experience. But, equally, those who are starting out have to remember that is what they are doing - starting out. Any sort of group with experience may appear intimidating to new members, whether it's a club of some sort or a mailing list. Personally, I think that this list veers into "abusive" territory far, far less than some others I've been subscribed to. Graeme -- ## List details at http://www.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users ## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/ ## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://www.exim.org/eximwiki/
