On Tuesday, February 10, 2004 13:08, Jacob Albretsen wrote: > On Tuesday 10 February 2004 10:21, District Webmaster > wrote: >> I've compiled a list of rules that I think will help >> anyone be a good member of this or any other mailing >> list. > > 5. You must use what everyone else is using. For > example, you have a question about xine, the best response > you can expect to get is "apt-get mplayer" The only > distros you may ask questions about are Red Hat, Debian, > and Gentoo. Mandrake users are quietly shunned based on > opinions formed on versions that are 3 to 4 releases old. > Other distros are equally looked down upon, so if you have > a question about your Slackware install, the best response > will be "use Debian".
Even though there's some element of tongue in cheek here, there is a valid point to be made: It's easier to get useful answers to questions when your questions are about something that at least one other person on the list uses and knows about. Hence my reluctance to answer Debian- or Mandrake-specific questions :) (I'm probably not much help on Slackware, either, if only because my Slackware knowledge is long obsolete. But I can pretty well guarantee that my answer won't be "use Debian". :) I agree, though, that "apt-get install ogle_gui" is not a useful answer to a xine question. "I don't know" would be slightly better; nothing at all might be even better than that (although it does give the impression that we're not being helpful). ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
