[gentoo-dev] List Reflections/Considerations

[Tom Syroid]

--On Saturday, April 13, 2002 10:21 -0500 Darren Crotchett 
<backdoc@×××××××××.com> wrote:

> Not to start a flamewar, but I think that the way that 80% of the mailing
> list  links are specifically listed on the homepage, but you have to
> click an  additional link to see the other 20% (one of which is the
> newbie list) causes  people to choose the user list when they might
> would/should have chosen  newbie.  Exacerbating the mistake is the fact
> that the user list is the first  one listed.  Further, the other choices
> (like developer) are obviously not  what the newbie is looking for, so
> the mistake is easy to make.  In all  honesty,

I think this is a valid topic for discussion.

I've been using Gentoo for approx. two months and remain thoroughly 
impressed; it is my distro of choice because it (a) gives me the 
flexibility I desire and (b) because the community surrounding Gentoo is 
intelligent and thoughtful. Which is important, as I'm an experienced (15+ 
years) user and don't have a lot of patience for lazy questions and/or 
solutions.

I joined both the gentoo-user and gentoo-dev lists for the above reasons, 
and while both lists are relatively high traffic, I was willing to tolerate 
sifting through 200+ emails a day because, for the most part, their content 
was substantive. AND because people like /spider took the time and effort 
to prompt people to take some initative to RTFM or RTFA (read the fine 
archives) and put some initative into their own learning process. Over the 
past week, however, the quality and usefulness of these lists is rapidly 
diminishing -- at least for me.

I don't need to read 20+ posts arguing the validity of netscape 4 over 6. 
The reason I chose Gentoo is because the distro is fully customizable to 
every individual's need. The above point is moot -- just figure out a 
portage naming scheme.

I don't need to read post from proported experienced users with language in 
caps -- it's rude and uncalled for. We're supposed to be grownups here.

I don't need to sift through 100+ one-line queries that could be send 
off-list and be just as effective.

Yes I know I can leave the list if I don't like the traffic or the way it's 
managed. But if the Gentoo distro is going to continue to attract the 
skill-level and expertise it has up to now, we must find a way -- as a 
community -- to return these lists to the functionality they held two weeks 
ago.

Best,
/tom

</off-soapbox> ;-)