I agree to a point. With this list I think its actually really good. People seemingly go out of the way to help out. Like alot of email lists etc you learn lots from just lurking. I reckon thats the first thing any new member should do. I don't consider myself an expert in anyway shape or form with Linux, and am amazed at the level of knowledge & patience shown on this list. But you learn lots by just reading what people say. Then when you need to ask a question you know what to say, and you know what you can do yourself to at least attempt to fix something yourself. Good old Google!
That recent strife we had on this list was the exception. And to be fair in that situation, I think if you would have struck that person face-to-face with the following things happening: a) Ignored all helpful suggestions and then proceeded to complain that the help he/she was getting was not qualified/good enough, even when people actually turned up at the person place to fix things b) Everything was related back to a completely off-topic conversation that people repeatedly asked for he/she to stop doing. c) Above 2 steps happening repeatedly ad nauseum I can't even imagine how frustating a face-to-face conversation like that might be. You might have more patience than me - but seriously I think I would probably, eventually, be quite rude & abrupt to that sort of person. And I think most people would. But yeah, I do agree that its best not to flame. And I think this list is pretty good at being patient and helpful. cheers Daryn On Sat, Dec 11, 2004 at 08:25:23PM +1300, Derek Smithies wrote: > Hi, > I saw a comment on this list recently which said, > (quoting from memory) "polite replies only please" > > After some time to reflect on this, and some time to discuss with > colleagues, I wonder if someone on the list could explain why > some feel it is ok to flame someone. > > > ========================================= > One does see on lists times when person Y says, "Person X is an idiot". > > Yet, what I do not understand is that if we took all the list members to a > conference, and everyone was given a chance to speak, > would Y say (when it was his turn) "Person X is an idiot" > > In reality, Person Y would say it nicely, like, "I think X is wrong" > > ========================== > Extending further. > We have a fixup night of the local linux user group. Everyone is in little > clusters. The computers needing help are there, and two experts per > computer. The computer owner is there also, with the two experts. > Would the experts spend time shouting at the owner, "you are an idiot" ? > Absolutely not. > Yet, we do the same in IRC. > > ================================================ > Extending further. > I take a sheet of company paper, write "person Y is an idiot", put the > paper into an envelope, and post it to person Y. > > ============================================================= > Do you see my point? > > At the conference, or at the fixup night, we would never be so socially > inept as to call someone an idiot. (Actually, I have seen it happen. The > person doing the name calling was the sort of person you make every effort > to avoid. No chocolate fish for the person who guesses the offenders name. > There is a guillotine waiting for the person who sends possible names to > this list.) > > yet, and this is the weird thing, it happens on email lists and IRC chat > rooms with depressing regularity. This suggests to me that we have to grow > up in our usage of email. > > Derek. > > --
