Re: tlug: A message to the "Old Guard" - was "HTML again"

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Dave" == Dave Gutteridge <dave@example.com> writes:

    Dave> Chris seems to think that the man pages DO in fact have all
    Dave> the information.  His own words:

    >> Take the man pages: in any given situation, the answers you're
    >> looking for are probably somewhere in there.

    Dave> I do not agree, however, when he says that they are
    Dave> logically laid out. I'm sure there is connectivity that
    Dave> makes sense to the poeple who generated them, but that ain't
    Dave> me.

You do need to be immersed in the "culture" to recognize the logic.
You do need a "Hitchhiker's Guide," and there isn't one.  You gotta
take a ride or two with Zaphod Beeblebrox.

I learned about Unix that way, by reading man pages ... and then
following the references at the bottom even if I didn't need to.
That's suboptimal, though, in a Business Linux world.

    Dave> Let's bring this home to Linux again. You guys (decide
    Dave> amongst yourselves who qualifies for this grouping) created
    Dave> something really cool. And now everyone wants it. I know I
    Dave> want it. But i don't think you can expect me to necessarily
    Dave> become part of the UNIX community in order to use it any
    Dave> more than you can expect me to become a mechanic in order to
    Dave> drive a car.

Community is about reciprocal contribution.  Doesn't have to be in the
same coin.  And it doesn't have to be value for value.  If you need
value for value (and often we do), there's the market.

    Dave> That's why i have it and why i want to know more about
    Dave> it. But what i want to be is a computer animator, not a
    Dave> programmer.

I'm not sure which Scott you referred to, but if it's Scott S, some
neat penguin animations or horrific Bill Gates morphs would probably
go a long way.  There are all kinds of ways to contribute, we don't
need everybody to be a programmer ;-)

But someday (and if you stay on this list, I would bet it's a matter
of weeks at most) you'll find yourself answering a technical question.
Maybe in your field of interest, maybe something you read two months
ago on the list, ... or maybe something you figured out for yourself
and didn't even notice was hard :-)

    Dave> In any case, Chris mentioned that they may already be
    Dave> working on a solution to these kinds of issues which i
    Dave> suggested, which is to make a seperate mailing list for
    Dave> people who want to get more technical. I think it's a good
    Dave> idea,

Well, you can't really split it into more and less technical, 'cause
"Who ya gonna call?"  "BugBusters!"  But they're all on the "techie"
list.  This is a classic problem for MLs and newsgroups, the wizards
often want a channel to themselves, but they can't keep it that way
(unless there's an entrance test).  We can split the list into
"tlug-techtalk" and "tlug-flame," and that will work (as long as
people who normally don't subscribe to techtalk do so when they start
having questions, it being impolite to ask "copy me 'cause I don't
subscribe").  The only technical split I think could work is I18N
vs. general.  ('Nuff said, any more will go to tlug-admin, which I
have been dragged into against my will :-( .)

-- 
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