to newcomers: please try to solve the problem yourself before asking

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004, Kenneth Porter wrote:

> --On Friday, September 10, 2004 8:51 PM -0600 Dana-Renee Lee 
> <fedora-list at anadromada.net> wrote:
>
>> If I was a new comer to Fedora I would find this message VERY
>> OFFENDING!!!! This list exists because of new comers and old comers using
>> Fedora!!!
>
> Did you read ESR's article? You might check out this part in particular:
>
> <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#not_losing>

not to be just plain contrary, but can we tone down the eric raymond 
FAQ worship here just a touch?  yes, there's lots of good advice 
there, but it's also a fact that raymond loves to give advice that he 
doesn't feel applies to him.  case in point -- the flamefest on the 
linux kernel mailing list once upon a time when raymond tried very 
hard to get his version of a new kernel build system adopted (it lost 
out to the current Kconfig system).  feel free to read about that at:

http://lwn.net/2002/0221/kernel.php3

where it begins, "The net gods are not entirely without mercy."  my 
point being only that raymond typically talks a good talk, but doesn't 
always walk it.  so take what he says with just a grain of skepticism.

rday

p.s.  i might also point out that, for someone who presumes to lecture 
others on mailing list etiquette, raymond has an annoying habit of 
appending overly-verbose sigs to some of his posts, reminding everyone 
of his fondness for firearms, as you can see here:

http://lwn.net/2002/0221/a/the-beginning.php3

as the saying goes, yes, eric raymond is a very bright guy.  just ask 
him.