[NTLUG:Discuss] Giving Up On FEDORA

[terry]

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 9:26 AM, Dennis Myhand <dmyhand at ednaisd.org> wrote:
> Thomas Cameron wrote:
>> On 01/04/2010 06:33 AM, Allen Meyers wrote:
>>> No matter how many bells and whistles development puts into an OS it
>>> is no better then the support offered by the forum. I went into Fedora
>>> with high expectations and dropped it because of its non responsive
>>> attitude to the newbie.
>>
>> Could it be that no one answered because you're asking impossible
>> questions?  "Hi, I've totally buggared my system because I did it
>> totally wrong, can someone help me?"  That's not going to get any
>> meaningful answers, sorry.  Really, the only answer is to go read the
>> docs and do it the right way.
>>
>> Also, use the mailing list, not the forum.  There are a lot more
>> professionals on the list:
>>
>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
>>
>
>
> I want to step in here on this.  I have been on a number of mailing
> lists, and in any number of forums, and I have seen people ask these
> questions, but it is extremely rare.  What I have seen (More often than
> not) is, when a question is asked by someone who is either new to Linux,
> or not a developer/programmer, they get a response like, "Well, do you
> actually want to learn about your system, or do you just want to take
> the easy way out to solve your problem?"

I see a lot of discussion in this thread about rude responses to
support requests via form or mail list  but what I do not see is very
much in the way of understanding of the fact that "there's one in
every crowd";  Which is to say that no matter where you go, there's
always going to be some smart butt that will respond in a rude way. If
one could just rise above and ignore the rude rhetoric and continue
with the discussion, one can get answers to questions and get much
needed information. If one question does not work try another or
re-phrase it and someone will catch on to what information you really
need.
And to the rude commenter;  Don't do that, it helps no one to
brow-beat someone who is coming to you/us for help.  Either help or
shut UP and let someone else do it!  :)

Most of the Linux disasters are recoverable / fixable and lead to a
great deal of learning - we learn from our mistakes.  Most of us Linux
users are interested in learning - we have a very interesting and very
powerful OS and we almost always want to learn more about it - so
let's enter these forms and lists with a spirit of friendliness and a
desire to share knowledge - bickering and arguing about philosophical
issues does very little in the area of sharing information about this
awesome OS we call Linux [or OSS to be exact / correct].

These people on the lists and forums and irc channels, for the most
part, are doing their best to share information, it's just that some
are better and more efficient at it than others and some think they
need to discipline the novice user into doing things for himself -
sometimes we need to just take the useful information and let the
noise roll off.  Even the smart-butt rude guy can be made to share
information (if he has any) buy tactfully ignoring his rude or
un-friendly attitude by coming back with kindness and respectfulness.
(You've heard the expression "kill 'em with kindness"?  It works most
of the time.)  And if you ignore someone they finally shut up.  If you
ignore rudeness, it eventually withers away as it finds no argument or
retaliation.  In other words, don't let the smart alec run you off or
turn you off. If we give voice to the rude and un-friendly and counter
with even more rude and un-friendly responses / arguments, it is
propagated and promoted - if we make our comments with all the
friendliness and kindness we can muster, we foster corporation.


That kind of smug,
> self-righteous, weaselly evasiveness really pisses me off.  Normally,
> because I am not a programmer/developer, I just want my system to do
> what I need it to do.  And yes, I have totally hosed my system, and I
> have also asked what I needed to do to fix it, and I think I have done
> so on this list.  And I got a viable, effective answer.  And I cannot
> tell you how rare that is.  I will not participate in the Debian mailing
> lists anymore.  I have learned my lesson long ago.  There are other
> lists I will not be found on for similar reasons, as well as forums
> which shall forever remain not listed in my bookmarks and also for
> similar reasons.  So please, when someone says they are avoiding some
> distro because of the difficulty of doing something, don't just think
> they have asked the questions wrongly and avoid or abandon them.  They
> may be stating the problems they encountered in the best way they know
> how.  It isn't always an id10t problem.  Sometimes it really is a crappy
> program.  Peace, Dennis at work in Edna
>
> --
>
> Dennis Myhand
> Edna High School
> Edna ISD
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>



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