[NTLUG:Discuss] NTLUG veterans helping Linux newbies?

[MadHat]

Bobby Wrenn wrote:
> 
> One of the "Newbies"
> 
> I have been using Linux as my desktop system for over 2yr. I currently
> need to bring up mail, web and ftp on my home network with connection to
> the outside world. I have worked in the Ineternet industry for over 18
> months and I still don't even know how to frame the question in such a
> way that I can find answers when I RTM.
> 
> The problem is that all documentation, discussion, and training is
> written from the inside out. It assumes some basic understanding of the
> paradigm. If you come at it from outside you don't even know how to ask
> a question, much less understand the answer.
> 
> So, sometimes (a lot of the time) saying RTM makes sure I will both not
> find an answer and not ask the next time.
> 
> I have asked serveral questions on this list. I have had some good to
> the point answers, some exotic discussions of OS theory (when I just
> want to make it work), and some questions have gone unanswered.
> 
> The only way the Linux community grows is by teaching people who do not
> know. We don't need a new list we need a willingness to get down in the
> sand box and play with those who just want to learn what someone else
> already knows.

I think in most cases, if someone knows the answer they try to help, the
problem is often that we (we as in the veterans, or those that
_supposedly_ know) don't always know what is being asked or just don't
know the answer and have decided it is better to not answer than to have
hundreds of people saying, "I am not ignoring you, I just don't know the
answer".

This is a difficult problem.  I myself try to look at man pages and docs
for answers when there is a question I don't know the answe to because I
feel like I can read the man pages (better than some) and usually
understand what is being said, where as you mentioned, some people can't
because they don't understand the format or terminology uned in said man
pages.  I think we do a pretty good job when we can.  But there is only
so much we can do as a group over email.  It isn't always easy to
express abstract ideas via written text, without direct interaction.

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