Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Simple Linux Router on a live CD?

[Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.]

On Wednesday 21 February 2007, Peter Lewis <prlewis@×××××××××××.org> wrote 
about 'Re: [gentoo-user]  Re: Simple Linux Router on a live CD?':
> On Wednesday 21 February 2007 16:03, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> > More seriously, there is such a thing as a bad question, and they
> > significantly outnumber the good. Most questions provide too little
> > information to get a really useful answer.
>
> That may well be true, but it doesn't make the question invalid - just
> perhaps in the wrong forum.

It doesn't make the question invalid, at all.  But, it does reduce the 
amount of responses you get AND limit their quality, no matter what medium 
is used.  AFAIK, no one on IRC/email/forums is getting paid to do Gentoo 
support, so when answering a question is too much work, we can just skip 
it.  If we have to guess to much of your setup or list a large number of 
possible problems (because we don't know which ones it isn't) or enter a 
longer dialog to get the information to solve the problem, you might just 
get skipped.

While ESR is sometimes full of crap, he does have good guide on how to ask 
questions that will attract good answers: 
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

> So, and I ask this as an honest question, is it generally accepted that
> the level of technical knowledge expected on this list is higher than,
> say, on the forums? Or the IRC channels?

I tend to think that technically savvy users will migrate to email/IRC, but 
I don't have any foundation for that belief.  That probably me just being 
elitist.  I've always thought that web forums generally suck as a medium.

> I'm relatively new to the Gentoo community, though not to online or
> computing communities generally, and am finding that there are a lot
> more unspoken norms or rules than I am used to (or perhaps the seasoned
> members are less forgiving of them being broken), which can be quite a
> disincentive to a newcomer.

Hrm, I can't say there are many more rules here than on my other mailing 
lists, but there are a number of informal rules that are NOT laid out in 
any FAQ or welcome message.  It would be helpful for at least some people 
if we would let them know about our 5 pillars: "Plain-Text Only", "No 
Top-Posting", "No Thread Hijacking", "Attachments Only By Request (and 
consider private mail)", and "Trim Quoted Material".

-- 
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.                     ,= ,-_-. =. 
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