Hi Andrew, Thanks for the reply. My comments are below:
> You are right when you say that > "veteran engineers are the foundation of this list and our community" > and that > "their participation is required in order to maintain a high-level of > discussion, technical support, and training". > > "Attracting and retaining these engineers" > is very important but i don't believe > "it should be our top priority" If you agree that veteran engineers are our most valuable resource, why should we make something else our top priority? > And by the way, we are not talking "advocacy and non-technical > discussions here" but genuine and many times 'rookie-like' linux user > queries. Agreed, this is why I said "most" advocacy and non-technical discussion should be taken elsewhere :) > Please please and please, let us not risk leaving contributions to this > list to a lonely handful of veteran engineers who once they run out of > ideas or breath "God forbid" the list crumples like many have! I'm not suggesting that they should be the only ones to contribute. I am suggesting that we work to keep the list focused on technical discussion and do not flood people's inboxes with dozens of posts about Apple, Steve Jobs, or arguments about whether or not someone's opinion is "based on fact." This will make veteran engineers (our most valuable resource) run away faster than anything else. > Like Simon and Stephen said, > > "We need to strike a balance between the newbies and the veterans, by > teaching the newbies how to ask questions etc. and veterans how to > hand-hold newbies" > but > "It's a balance we haven't yet mastered we want the newbies but we also > want to retain the experience and insight of the veterans" I agree with this, though I believe the needs of our veterans should be a slightly higher priority than those of our newbies. > > I also don't believe that > "better we inform the ignorant than preach to the converted" > > I mean, why would we preach to the ignorant anyway?!!! Because, by definition, the ignorant suffer from a lack of knowledge: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ignorant Regards, Kyle Spencer ----- Original message ----- > Kyle, > You are right when you say that > "veteran engineers are the foundation of this list and our community" > and that > "their participation is required in order to maintain a high-level of > discussion, technical support, and training". > > "Attracting and retaining these engineers" > is very important but i don't believe > "it should be our top priority" > > And by the way, we are not talking "advocacy and non-technical > discussions here" but genuine and many times 'rookie-like' linux user > queries. > > Please please and please, let us not risk leaving contributions to this > list to a lonely handful of veteran engineers who once they run out of > ideas or breath "God forbid" the list crumples like many have! > > We have a very hungry community out there for open-source technologies > and linux is a great contributor to this cause. > > Like Simon and Stephen said, > > "We need to strike a balance between the newbies and the veterans, by > teaching the newbies how to ask questions etc. and veterans how to > hand-hold newbies" > but > "It's a balance we haven't yet mastered we want the newbies but we also > want to retain the experience and insight of the veterans" > > I also don't believe that > "better we inform the ignorant than preach to the converted" > > I mean, why would we preach to the ignorant anyway?!!! > > Andrew > > ------------ > > From: Kyle Spencer <[email protected]> > To: Uganda Linux User Group <[email protected]>, Simon Vass > <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [LUG] Belittling people's contributions > Message-ID: <1318498259.1411.9.camel@Nokia-N900> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > Hi Simon, > > > I'd love to hear thoughts on this. > > I think that veteran engineers are the foundation of this list and our > community; their participation is required in order to maintain a > high-level of discussion, technical support, and training. > > Accordingly, I think attracting and retaining veteran engineers should > be our top priority. In my opinion, the best (and perhaps only) way to > do this is to keep the noise low and the content technical; political > correctness be damned. > > It follows, then, that most advocacy and non-technical discussion should > be taken elsewhere (e.g. I-Network). After all, better we inform the > ignorant than preach to the converted. > > Regards, > Kyle Spencer > > _______________________________________________ > The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug > > Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: > [email protected] Mailing list archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Mailing list settings: > http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug To unsubscribe: > http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug > > The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: > http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them > in any way. _______________________________________________ The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: [email protected] Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them in any way.
