[plug] Hacker Nights - newbies

[Jay Turner]

Leon Brooks Said:

> So... it's not as cut-and-dried as you might think, either way. I'd be
> tempted to add a guru list but make membership on the newbie list a
> condition of membership on the guru list, and make acceptance into the
> guru list (modulo a grandfather clause) require sponsorship from (say)
> three gurus and three _newbies_. Sure, you can route the newbie list
> to /dev/null, and some people will, but by and large I think it will
> keep gurus in the loop.

I would be against this. Mainly because I don't consider myself, nor do I
think others would consider me a 'guru'.

However, as I haven't achieved 'guru' status, doesn't mean I wouldn't want
to be able to listen and learn from the actual 'gurus'.

Often I learn things not by asking questions, but by reading what the
'gurus' are up to day to day in their never-ending quest to build a better
system. I don't feel that sticking me (or people like me) at the newbie
table is the way to go. Sure I may be able to help others out with the
skills that I currently do have, but my pipeline for learning more has been
removed.

I'm in favour of leaving the one list as it is, or if you are deadset on
having two lists, have them, but make them open to everyone, but just
specify the level of technical difficulty that should be addressed on each
list.

Perhaps a 'newbie' type list where someone could post about setting file
permissions, getting ssh to work properly etc..
And a more advanced list for people who have more advanced questions perhaps
relating to the sort of things that Craig, Cameron and Bernard often
discuss. The problem with this is where do you draw the line at what is easy
and what is hard?

Maybe if we encourage people to make better use of the archives and maybe
create an FAQ or something we can encourage people to explore other avenues
fully before posting here, cutting down the number of 'newbie' type posts.
The one thing I have found with Linux/OSS software is that there is
generally a lack of doco or if doco is available, not being able to find it
easily. Maybe we could start an online reference library where as people
stumble across useful articles (for example getting Squid to work with Samba
3 or the steps required to update the packages and the anaconda installer in
RedHat EL or getting the Promise RAID controller src to compile and be
available at boot with a new kernel etc..) they could post links to them or
submit copies of the information and any of the notes, observations they
made during their experience.

That is just my 2c on how I think PLUG can work for everyone. I assume that
there maybe many people like me who don't post that often, but are sitting
paying attention quietly in the wings.

Jay

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