[CentOS] A proposed CentOS mailing list FAQ

[Tom H]

On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 3:05 PM,  <m.roth at 5-cent.us> wrote:
> First of all, I want to thank everyone who's responded so far - keep them
> emails coming, boys and girls! (Seriously - I mean it.)

You're welcome.


> Next:
> Tom H wrote:
>> On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 10:35 AM,  <m.roth at 5-cent.us> wrote:
>>>
>>> I threatened to do this a few months ago.... Here's a first draft. I
>>> was thinking of it as something that might get posted the beginning of
>>> the month, or sent to someone who drops in with "it doesn't work!!!".
>>>
>>>    PLEASE feel free, no, *please* rip, shred, tear, rend this, and help
>>> me make it usable.
>>>
>>> #####################################################################
>>>
>>> 1. This mailing list is here for folks around the world to share
>>> knowledge about CentOS and Linux. This is not a paid tech support
> organization
>>> - if you want that, buy a RedHat subscription.
>>>
>>> 2. We are not here to do your job for you. If you think we should,
> <snip>
>> First the negative comments.
>>
>> In (1), "if you want that, buy a RedHat subscription" is unnecessary.
>
> Why?
>>
>> In (2), "If you think we should, perhaps you should pay us" is really
>> unnecessary.
>
> Again, why? *Part* of the reason are the folks who come on, and give us
> either a Windows user type of complaint (it doesn't work!), or who seem to
> want us to write them a step-by-step for what they need to do (and some of
> them have had RHCE and other certs to their sigfile, which tells us how
> solid those certs are), who obviously have never even *tried* to look for
> the answers. Some of us get irritated with that.

I understand and share your frustration(s) but both these sentences
seem too petty to be in an informative email.


>> In (4)
>> - use a meaningful subject
>> - separate opinion from fact
>> - use a pastebin to post a full log
>
> What's the link to pastebin (I always just cut&paste, and only give a few
> relevant lines, with all the other kruft cut out, so I've never needed
> it)?

Sometimes what the person asking for help selects to post is
irrelevant so a full log output on http://pastebin.centos.org/ can be
useful.