[tlug] Regarding intolerance

["Norman Diamond" <ndiamond@example.com>]

We are all newbies, just on different subjects.

We once were all newbies, even on subjects that we subsequently mastered.

We weren't all stupid though.  BIG difference.

If someone is a newbie, there is no justification for attacking.  Help if
you wish, otherwise be silent.  If someone is stupid, there might or might
not be justification for attacking.

I have a few thousand unread messages from TLUG for which, even if I might
have the ability to help some deserving soul, I won't have time.  For those
who have time to read newbie messages but don't have time to answer, don't
answer.  For those who have time to read messages from people who repeatedly
refuse to learn, flame them if you like, but don't leave, there's still the
rest of us who know how to converse civilly.

Someone who used the command line all their lives might be as ignorant about
X as someone who used GUIs all their lives might be ignorant about command
lines.  Either try teaching them once or remain silent.  There is no call
for attacking until after you've explained things properly and they refuse
to learn.

Once upon a time Google didn't exist.  Even after it existed, some people
had e-mail but didn't have the web.  Some people had the web but got
hundreds of useless hits.  Even people who are experts might have reasons
that they never formed the habit of searching Google first.  If you see
someone who is a Google newbie (though expert on some other matter), gently
inform them once.  If they refuse to learn after being informed several
times, then feel free to flame.

I don't think anyone gained by either of these recent events, experts
flaming newbies or experts moving out of newbieville.

By the way, notice how the Japanese government is cutting back on education?
After the degree of success they've had for decades in keeping students
ignorant of history and civics, now maybe they'll do the same with science
and math.  But does anyone think it is right that teachers should leave the
schools and go someplace where teachers only have to talk to each other?

-- Norman Diamond