[Lincs] List Politics (Allows / Banned topics)

[iain Baker]

James, i promise i will wipe my mind of your admissions of faults....

On 3/29/07, James Taylor <jt at imen.org.uk> wrote:
> Disclaimer. This post contains information about me I don't want to
> bring up ever again. I very rarely admit I have faults, let alone
> discuss them, but I want to promote the idea that some people need help,
> and I have been one of them in the past. Oh ok, Fine, I still am, there
> you go, I said it now.
>
> > Who cares about peoples abilities, there are few enough of us running
> > Linux to form a normal LUG
>
> I would like to suggest that guidelines to posting on LLUG lists are on
> the website that is being made. Coming from ALUG there are actually two
> lists, Main and Social (although Social doesn't get the use it should,
> and some things are posted on Main which should really be on Social, and
> people are politly asked to move the thread to the other list).

a VERY good idea... in fact i will add one to the current page... if
anyone has any suggested rules please send them to either the list or
myself... after all i am highly likely to overlook an obvious rule let
alone a more esoteric (although still important) one.

> The other thing to remember about a LUG is that targeting it for all
> levels is very difficult -

Very true, and something we battled with during our last 'make-over'

>and also its very easy to make assumptions
> about people based on knowledge of one of their specialisations - I know
> a very good programmer, one of the best programmers I know, who's
> written a lot of Windows and Linux based code in many languages, but
> he's a programmer at heart and doesn't know much about Linux (that is
> he's not an administrator, doesn't care about package management or
> permissions, he wants to get on with writing code). At the other end, I
> know countless Systems Administrators who can't program for anything,
> and each of them have very specialised areas of knowledge about various
> packages - some swear by a package, others swear about the same package.
>
> And I've seen programmers who arn't very good at maths, who are complete
> genius about user interface design and wizard creation and knowing how
> to make usable software which protects the data integrety from dodgy
> users, and I've seen programmers who make academic simulations and
> analysis tools for which you need a degree to use in the first place,
> who don't care about looking for dodgy user input because its only ever
> used by four people who are trained in using it.
>
> The point is this - someone can be very accomplished, knowledgeable and
> "leet" at one thing, and still be a complete "noob" needing help and
> guidance at another. Many open source applications, for all their good
> karma points for being Free Software sometimes are very lacking in user
> documentation, or have old or incomplete installation documentation.
> Some communities are very closed to new-comers, and project leads are
> very self-opinionated arrogant argumentative people (I know, I am all of
> those three), all of which can frighten away people from doing things.

All good points... and I am a strong believer that assumption is the
largest floor in humanity! It shouldn't matter what history someone
has with linux, especially since (IMHO) one of the biggest duties of a
LUG is to support people!

> So, if your reading this thinking Oh I have problems, I want to know
> answers to, but Im too scared to post because I don't want to be seen to
> be an idiot and be flamed for thinking whatever it is that I think, Post
> the question, because I can guarantee theres at least one other person
> on the list who might not be a poster but a reader who will go "oh yeah,
> I want to know that, I'll see what the response is". And sure, sometimes
> there isnt a reply, because sometimes this stuff is too new, or to
> specialised.

Here Here

> Very Brief About me in Linux (a.k.a. Why I'm a noob whos been and done
> things and not scared to ask questions)
>
<SNIP>
>
> * notable exception is that I've acquired a machine on Friday. It hasn't
> been broken yet. I say yet, I've only had six days, however to counter
> ballance that one, the machine given to me on my first day at my
> programming job 1) didnt have the cd drive plugged in and 2) didnt have
> the right kernel modules for its network card (or rather , it did when
> it was running redhat but when I installed debian it didn't). Notably,
> on my third day at that job, I truncated the customer database.

LOL... well done, that sounds like the type of luck i have!

Iain