Meta-discussions and the role of the Fedora Community

[les]

On Fri, 2013-03-29 at 16:09 +0000,
davidschaak1 at mobilicity.blackberry.com wrote:
> Once again sorry about the top post.
> 
> Afaik, there has never been a foo in the man pages. What I was referring to was the new people find the jargon in them, if not intimidating, at least confusing, if they do not know the jargon.
> 
> It was the same with some of howto's that were available in the 90's.
> 
> I am self taught, and there are plenty of gaps in my knowledge on the admin side of things, and I am still learning.
> 
> Having been away from computers for quite some time, and these mail lists, my 2nd last fedora install was fc 5. The helpfu improvement in the lists since the 90's is unreal.
> 
> Just my 0.02
> 
> Dave
I think Dave is right.  I have been a fedora fan for several years now,
and the change has been gradual, but sincere, and the improvement is
definitely noticeable

On the topic here, though, let me go to an extreme for a moment... I
have a friend who has been an admin for many many years.  He is now
severely vision impaired.  Whether or not you agree, having to follow a
thread using a screen reader or Dragon systems stuff (when he has to
resort to Windows) which contains one or more rants about the grammar or
the lack of supporting documentation is not helpful.

Moreover, a newbie may not have any idea of how to state his question in
technical terms.  I agree though that the subject line "A question"
certainly is a turn off, but I always dutifully read the question to see
what the person needs.  I also generally email them personally to let
them know that they need to put the actual question in the subject line.
And to give the error message if any and the action they see on the
computer in the body.

There is no need to chastise someone in public.  A true leader follows a
simple maxim, Chastise in private, praise in public.  Also if an apology
is warranted it should be done publicly.  

This is just my 2 cents.

Les H