Frederick Noronha (FN) wrote: >One of the biggest challenges facing LUGs at the moment stems from the >fact that a growing number have existed for ten years or more. Many of >us know each other quite well, and newcomers often find it difficult to >get a word in without feeling that they're somehow offending those to >whom their problem seems trivial and not worthy of detailed discussion. > > I fully agree there. I have seen so many occasions where a n00b is flamed for asking a rather simple question. An answer like RTFM is just not good enough for someone who does not know he/she can RTFM in the first place. Your typical n00b will install a gui and will want to do everything in it, as per Doze. We all know how helpful thatis. He/she will not know that commands like man, info or apropos exist even if he does, some man pages should at some stage be rewritten in English, in any case, like the procmail man pages, for instance.
>Some LUGs occasionally flare up into completely pointless flame wars >that start over trivial macho tendencies of many members to prove their >technological prowess at every opportunity. This tendency has led to >some community fragmentation, with a single group forking into a group >for veterans and one for newcomers. > > Which is so true. I belong to three LUG's two of which recently split into two or more subgroups. Now what good does it do anybody do belong to a group where everybody is a newbie? That's almost like the blind leading the blind. We can fast-track migration to Linux if we give some of our time to assist newcomers and not pounce like rabid dogs everytime the word Windows is mentioned. Let's face it, 99.9% of newcomers come from a world of Windows and this attitude just alienates them and sends them right back to the dark side. Today's newbie is tomorrow's expert and if helped in a meaningful manner, will in turn be helpful others in the future. We joined our respective LUG's not only to receive help and information, but to give of our time as well. We are getting our help at no cost, after all. I realise that we all have busy schedules and that most of you will not even want to spend the time reading this. So do I, but my feeling on the subject of assisting others is not to hand out slaps left,right and centre, but contribute in a meaningful manner. Remember, we were all newbies. Linux after all, is not even 15 years old, so the first few of us that knew anything leaned heavily on our Unix experience. Unfortunately lately people are introduced to the gUI world first as far as computers go and need to be shown what the CLI can really do. Case in point: I have been involved in Linux training all over Africa since 2000 and 2 montha ago I provided training for the Goodyear Tyre company. Now I have structured my courses to do strictly CLI for the first few days, where Apache, Bind, exim/sendmail, samba, etc. are set up manually. Then on the last day I show them stuff like webmin and it all goes out the window. However, my exam I set is focussed only on the CLI stuff. My 2c worth. Use it or lose it. Tom _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
