[ILUG] Well, its good to know

[Kenn Humborg]

Robert Sweetnam wrote:
> 
> <Rant mode on>
> 
> Yep I'm afraid I'll have to agree with the masses.
> I submitted a question regarding window managers and how to configure gnome,
> (linux related???? I thought so.)
> no body else thought so. Not a single reply, mind you there were dozens
> about a  SCSI adapter/converter, either everyone who thinks they know
> everyone on the list are a bunch of dopey bastar&s or you think that because
> anyone outside the regular circle of postings doesent warrent a reply.

Maybe nobody knew the answer.  Maybe the people who did haven't got
the time to go into all the detail required.  IIRC, I looked at it
and thought 'I don't use that configuration method, so I can't 
answer'.

> I think that although I was initally impressed with the list, the fact that
> only certain people were replying to certain questions, giving the
> impression that only certain people care about their own needs or that
> ultimatly they know nothing about things in general and that they only need
> spout about stuff they know or need answers for.

That's exactly what this list _is_ for, IMHO.  If you want people
to spend their time provide answers to questions that they're not
interested in, then you should be paying for your tech support (in
other words, spend 40quid on Official RedHat and ask them).  If you want
people to answers your questions by spouting on about stuff they
_don't_ know, then you might as well be talking to M$ tech support
(and paying for it...).

Perhaps I should start billing for the time I spend answering
questions?

Think of this as a community.  It's like a bunch of people who
hang around drinking coffee and swapping questions, answers
and experiences.

The comment someone made (was it Dave Airlie?) that the list 
_needs_ to have a mixed level of content is completely true.  If 
every posting was an entry-level question, I wouldn't stay around
very long.  And I'm sure that there are others that feel the
same.  Hell, I just learned something new this morning (never knew
about "who -m" -- thanks Sean...).

> Its great that someone can post a message saying that enlightenment is the
> greatest Windowmanager, and there are dozens of replies agreeing!! yet no
> one can reply to a simple post about how one could set about coniguring the
> window manager in question,

Just because a question is simple doesn't mean the answer is simple...

> 
> <Rant mode off>
> I would like to thank Colm Buckley for his efforts with the entire ILUG
> operation, you have done a fantastic job and although I did post a reply
> with a binary file attached to  my mail I wish to apologise for my naievity.
> Everyone else on the ILUG team for their efforts and very informative
> articles on the web site. I think that any one on the list should get sense
> and troll through the archives and search for something releventm rather
> than suffer the endless barrage of useless information.

Agreed.  That's what archives are for.

IDEA:  Wouldn't it be cool if someone could trawl through the
archives and locate interesting bits?  Then there could be a
page on www.linux.ie that just points to interesting threads.
For example:  "How do I connect to ISP-X?" could link to some
of the better threads on this topic.

Could be a useful support knowledge base...

> I will continue, to subscribe although I feel that I cannot take the list
> seriously any more.
> I would also like to take this opportunity to thank John Rohan for the
> lightning quick delivery of SuSE 6.0, I'm well impressed with it so far.
> On a final note ( and i feel sorry for you if you lasted with my mail so
> far) I would like to thank everyone who replied to the questions that I
> posted. After all Im still a newbie.
> As for the rest of you if you want to show off you programming  prowess or
> imagined linux prowess, share it with someone who really cares if they have
> the highest disk benchmark in Linux.

If, by 'showing off programming prowess', you mean announcing
(or posting) programs and scripts that do cool/interesting/useful
things, then "Welcome to the world of Open Source".  If you don't
like that, then go back to learning from your mistakes rather than
from other people's successes.  And read Homesteading the Noosphere
(http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/) to understand 
why we do this without getting paid for it.

Disk benchmarks count if you're a sysadmin running a file server.
Hands up all the sysadmins on the list?

Later,
Kenn