On Mon, 2006-08-14 at 08:37 -0400, Lyvim Xaphir wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-08-14 at 12:45 +0100, Paul Howarth wrote:
>
> >
> > Another issue with having a list especially for newbies is that the list
> > is going to be populated almost entirely by newbies (obviously). Which
> > raises the issue: who will be answering the questions?
>
> That's not as much of a problem as you think it might be. This approach
> has already been tried by the Mandrake (aka Mandriva now) team and it
> worked just fine. What happened was that there were two lists (not
> including the development lists), expert and newbie. Alot of the
> newbies helped each other with questions that had already been solved,
> plus there was much use of the archives, and in addition to that of
> course alot of the experts either stayed on newbie or crossposted to
> both newbie and expert. It works.
>
>
> >
> > I'm firmly of the opinion that having a "comprehensive" list is actually
> > better for newbies as they're likely to get better quality answers, and
> > will learn other things by reading the list in general, even if they
> > don't understand most of it at first.
There is another perspective to consider, Fedora Core is far more
cutting edge and less suitable as a more static distribution for a
complete newbie at times. Check out my Linux number below, I still sit
here with my mouth agape wondering just what the hell someone just said.
It's a struggle at times.
I've never been formally educated in IT, but I have sat and learned from
the tech-powerhouses that it is my honor and rare privilege to pick up
information as they put forth in here, as I did on the old extinct
Caldera List that I used to park on. So, I am in no position to tell
them to dumb it down as a general rule. I can ask to have a specific
concept explained more simply, but as a general rule, it's to me to
aspire and struggle to understand, not the other way around.
Google is your friend, when a big word or concept happens. I feel ya,
and hear ya. I know exactly where you are coming from. Yet, one of our
prison instructors always uses large words whenever possible, telling
the inmates that it is not for him to be simple, it is up to them to
learn something new and become vastened in the process. Then he told
them to look that word up! I think I misspelled it myself! Yes, the
process is ....
arduous
adj 1: characterized by toilsome effort to the point of exhaustion;
especially physical effort; "worked their arduous way
up the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard
labor"; "heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many
laborious hours on the project"; "set a punishing
pace" [syn: backbreaking, grueling, gruelling, hard,
heavy, laborious, punishing, toilsome]
But, you can DO ET! When all else fails, use some humor, lighten up,
explain your problem and when you really screw up, admit it. This is a
by far a more generous, tolerant and effective list than you will find
anywhere, and I've made the rounds. Still, I feel ya, it can be a royal
pain and it hurts to have to learn something intimately that seems like
it ought to work out of the box. That bugs me no end, too. It's just the
way it is for now, and it isn't bad at all. Just more difficult. Ric
"There is no such force as a man determined to rise." W.E.B. DuBois
(my favorite socialist!)
--
================================================
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
...the Sin of Ignorance, and
...the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
Linux user# 44256
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