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Old 13th November 2013
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xxERICxx View Post
Also I am a subscriber to misc@, www@, and x11@... but I am in observation mode... currently reading the newest edition of Absolute OpenBSD and to be honest, the author has put it in my mind that until I am much more well versed, I should refrain from posting in the mailing lists...
Michael is giving sage advice. The intent of the project's mailing lists is to serve as forums for the developers to discuss issues with each other as well as the community as long as discussion is at the development level, or after significant research has been done. The project's mailing lists does not entitle the public to ask anything they choose -- especially if no research or forethought has been put into the question(s). The purpose of the mailing lists is to benefit the developers, not the community.

Newbie questions have been asked repeatedly on the mailing lists. The developers have seen these over & over again considering them to be nothing more than wasted time. Some developers along with some members of the community have no problem telling posters of ill-conceived or poorly researched questions that they are lazy, did not take time to understand the manpages or other documentation provided by the project, or are just generally clueless. People that repeatedly post poor questions on the mailing lists end up being ignored altogether. Don't post to the project mailing list until the problem has been thoroughly researched & understood.

People who consider this to be an unfriendly behavior do not understand software development. For those who persist in calling this unappealing, consider:
  • Does Linus Torvalds answer beginner questions which have not been researched?
  • If he did, how much work would he get done which really needed to be completed?
Newbie questions are better targetted to either:
  • this site.
  • openbsd-newbies at sfobug.org which is an independent mailing list originally started by a ports maintainer who now is a project developer.
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