Before I found this MUG, I was in a newbie list, where I rightfully
belonged. I was beseiged with foul language and temperamental children
telling me and others to RTFM. I didn't appreciate the language then and
I don't appreciate it now, personally.
The reason this MUG was a great resource was because it was inhabited by
persons who acted like adults. They didn't need to swear because they
were frustrated. They needed answers and got them from their peers who
were also on this list.
At one time this list was not composed of home users. The people that
ran our universities, and medical schools, and governments, and large
corporations were very active on this list. The security experts and
system analysists were here to help us secure our systems and make our
networks function. Those names are missing, as are OUR developers and
debuggers, that wrote the little scripts and taught us little tricks to
keep us up and running after we shot ourselves in the foot.
They are all gone. The only way to achieve this level of help again is
to clean up our collective act or build a new MUG. From where I sit, and
reading the level of questions submitted tese days there doesn't appear
to be much to work with.
The question is very basic. Do you want the guru's and developers back
on this list to help us or not?
If you do clean up the language, lose the attitude, exhibit a modicum of
self control, open your ears and develop some patience. Then, just maybe
Denis, SteveP, Dave, Zak, Ramone, Chamouol, Axalon, Jean-Michel and the
other old heads will come back and rescue us from ourselves.
I don't know about any one else on this list, but I need all the help
I can get that's why I'm here. I'm not likely to leave and I'm not
likely to help a whining, screaming, kid with a foul mouth and bad
manners. And I know that I am not... a majority of one.
Whether or not we read doc's isn't as important as trying the best we
know how according to our level of knowledge. Not all of us have the
ability to read the man page, but we all have the ability to try to
clean up our own mess. As far as I am concerned if we are smart enough
to run a Linux system successfully we are smart enough to be civilized
and act like it in public. This list after all is a public forum.
Pj
