Mail Archives: djgpp/1998/02/12/04:57:43
On Wed, 11 Feb 1998, Robb Beggs wrote:
> Perhaps there should be another newsgroup: comp.os.msdos.djgpp.newbie.
This has come up before; you might consider searching the DJGPP
archives at http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/mail-archives/. The
conclusion was that it wasn't a good idea after all. In a nutshell,
newbies most benefit from messages posted by experienced users, so it
doesn't make sense to banish them.
> It could be an environment for us beginners to feel free to ask a
> few obvious and frequent questions, yes even questions whose answers
> are in the docs, readme and faq. Responses could be posted by those
> who know, or think they know.
I don't see any point in a discussion where previous knowledge is not
used. If some issues has been beaten to death before, why should
anybody want to forget about that and reinvent the wheel? IMHO, a
news group can only have a good signal-to-noise ratio if it preserves
previous knowledge and makes a point of using it before discussing it
again. c.o.m.d is known as a group where the noise level is
relatively low. I'm sure most of those who read it will want to keep
it that way. Having random replies which relate random knowledge is
bound to contradict this.
It is good net etiquette to read the available docs before asking
questions, since you get help for free. Nevertheless, please note
that opposition to asking FAQs is quite low on this group. Usually,
these questions are answered with a direct pointer to a specific
section in the docs which discusses the related matters. So I don't
think people are afraid of ``asking a few obvious and frequent
questions.''
> Of course, newbie or documented questions will still appear in this
> newsgroup, but they would likely be less frequent.
You seem to assume that asking these questions annoys the heck out of
us. This is not so. It is actually the other way around: those
questions *are* answered, mostly in a polite and concise form; but
doing so takes time from those who reply to these questions, and they
have less time to help those whose questions are non-trivial.
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