sash wrote:
Yes, they are right there in the book and they are written by geeks who
don't appear to have the ability to write for a normal reader who likes
to learn. The written instructions often don't make sense until you've
already done it. And, the people who write them have done the things
hundreds of times, so for them it's old hat.
Hi sash. :)
But with others it's easy to tell that this is a pattern for them.
They just don't read.
Read and understand what you read area two entirely different things.
As Chris said, for some, yes. But I really was talking about ones that
come and ask the kind of questions that are *directly* answered in the
book. For example, one question I've often seen is, 'what directory am I
supposed to be in when I run these commands?' (or, if they don't ask
that question, seeing the errors they get shows they didn't read
either.) But, if they had read the introduction for chapter 5, they
would have seen the line that says:
"Before issuing the build instructions for a package, the package should
be unpacked as user lfs, and a cd into the created directory should be
performed."
gullible? or kind, understanding and compassionate?
Do you mean that people that help in general are kind, understanding and
compassionate, or that I am? :) In any case, yes, I generally agree, but
I was being a little cynical. That we endeavor to help and offer support
because we're trying to be kind, et al, but that at times we end up
getting bitten by it because the person we helped shows no intent on
ever learning to help themselves.
There is a printed book on how to search using google. I doubt it was
written because google is so simple to use for geeky things.
Er. Not quite sure what to say to that. If someone is having trouble
using google, I'm not sure how 1) they found LFS in the first place 2)
how they imagine LFS would be a simpler undertaking.
What the support staff on IRC is taught to do is help when they want to
help, be polite if they don't want to help and be silent if they want to
toss insults around the channel.
Indeed. The original question on this topic on this list was perhaps
we're attracting too much of the wrong crowd. I don't think that it's
necessary to put any sort of a fog-level on the LFS book to keep it
limited to a certain intellectual elite, but I *do* think that LFS
should cater to those who are willing to use what intelligence they do
have instead of relying on that of others.
...asking intelligent questions
imho, there are no stupid questions.
You think? If I in all seriousness asked you 'Should I be drinking
gasoline?' you wouldn't call that a stupid question? But yes, in general
I agree with that notion - being humble enough to ask questions when you
lack knowledge is a good quality. But you shouldn't also rely upon
others to spoonfeed you. :)
--
JH
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