[Gllug] unsubscribe

[Rich Walker]

In message <20010707005431.A31235 at knossos.bruce>
          brichardson at lineone.net (Bruce Richardson) wrote:

[snip points under discussion]
> 
> This was raised a while back but never went anywhere and I really don't
> see it working.  This list is a community.  All the lists that work have
> some kind of community spirit and that won't happen without a certain
> amount of chat as social lubrication.
> 
> If a separate help-only list is set-up, I bet you almost nobody will be
> on it - and if it did attract numbers they would eventually start
> chatting.  Human nature.
> 
> Fact is, the people who chat on this list are mostly also the people
> who provide the solid technical answers, lend resources for meetings,
> help organise meetings (or geeknics), talk at meetings, help out at
> stalls and so on.
> 
> The people who complain mostly aren't.
> 
> If anyone feels the traffic is too great all they have to do is make
> intelligent use of procmail and the message-scoring features of their
> mail client.  <irony class="heavy">There are plenty of people on the
> list who will be happy to give help and advice on this.</irony>
> 
> No offence meant to you, David.  I know you were only suggesting an
> answer to an issue already raised.

As a lurker and user of the list (I'll get to a meeting one day...)
I'd just like to point out one important thing about a list like
this:

  you learn very fast from the accumulated war-story discussion what
  the state of the art and the known problems in the area are.

Doesn't *sound* much, but it's that sort of thing that enables you
to realise that you can do something you would never have thought of
asking if you can do.

For example, that database discussion recently falls on the heels of
me installing SQL-Ledger(*) to use for our work accounting system.
So, now I've got this live db sitting on the server, I can see some
of the things that can be done with it, and how I might go about
them.

I wouldn't want to use a list that didn't do discussion. It would
read far too much like some sanitised corporate message forum for
approved discussion of the many virtues and pleasing quirks of the
world-beating packages that <choke> ... <glurkh> Sorry about that.
It wouldn't be worth reading, because it wouldn't have interesting
people in it. That's the problem with a help-only-list.

If people want a help-only list, then I suggest contacting any of the
Unix/Linux consultancies, who will be very happy to provide you with
an email address to send questions to. For a big fee. They might
even let you see what questions they answered for others :>

Whoops, slipped into a rant.

Now, please, can anyone tell me the best way to migrate a host from
a hybrid RedHat to Debian/testing? Last time I cp'd /etc into /home
to preserve it, built a clean /, formatted and rewrote /usr, created
a new /var (and left the old one alone), installed everything I
thought I was using, and then used emacs diff-mode on the new and
old /etc tree's to resync. Nearly worked, but if anyone has a better
idea, I'm all character-recognising devices.


cheers,Rich.




(*) Interesting package. I'll tell you how good it is at the end of
the VAT quarter, when I get to see how much work is necessary to
produce our VAT claim...

-- 
Rich Walker: rw at shadow.org.uk (Shadow Robot Project)
http://www.shadow.org.uk        251 Liverpool Road
+44(0)171 700 2487                London  N1 1LX
"Sometimes after an electrical storm I see in 5 dimensions"
  -- Cornfed Pig,  Duckman.

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