On Mon, Dec 02, 2002 at 10:15:04PM -0500, Russell Hires wrote:
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> I even did a favor and mailed copies of your diatribe to the guilty parties
> on the list! :-) I took your name out, though.
>
Maybe too late, though. I followed their wishes and uns*bscr*bed them
from all the SLUG lists. <evil grin>
The real problem is that when they fill out the New Member Survey, they
have to _uncheck_ boxes to stay off the SLUG and SLUG Announce lists.
Most people probably don't even pay much attention to that. But the
point is that they don't have to do any work to get on the lists. OTOH,
I was always afraid that if they actually had to do work to get on the
lists, they never would, and we'd dwindle.
Maybe I should rethink that.
> This also may be an example of why there is a lack of documentation with
> Linux/Free/Open Source software: why bother write it? People won't follow
> instructions anyway.
Oh there's plenty of documentation. It's just that much of it written
like reference manuals. You don't give someone new to a subject a
_reference manual_; you give them a tutorial. But coders don't like to
write tutorials.
And not following instructions isn't unique to us. I hate to say it, but
half the time, when I have to put something together (bikes, exercise
equipment, etc.) I only look at the docs (usually written by some
English-as-third-language Taiwanese) if I can't figure out how it goes
together myself. Comedians do whole routines on this facet of male
thinking. But in the Open Source community, you get bashed around a few
times for not R'ing The F'ing M, and you figure out you'd better check
the man pages and start googling before you go asking questions.
Fortunately, the people on this list are a little more tolerant than
most. ;-}
Paul
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