[D-community-discuss] current status / plan update

[Chris Lale]

Andrei Popescu wrote:
> Chris Lale <chrislale at untrammelled.co.uk> wrote:
>
>   
>> Andrei Popescu wrote:
>>     
>>> [...]
>>> A newbie list is unlikely to be very helpful. Who will be its
>>> subscribers?
>>>       
>> You would have two sorts of subscribers - newbies and others in D-c
>> who would be prepared to monitor and contribute replies. As Nico's
>> knowledge base/Andrei's Novice-doc/NewbieDOC grow, this would become
>> more and more a question of referring the poster to an appropriate
>> weblink. Novel questions would form the basis for new documentation -
>> consumer-led and, therefore, efficient.
>>     
>
> Yes, but my knowledge is limited. Too often I might let questions
> unanswered or just refer people to d-u. In contrast to this,
> questions on d-u get answered within minutes.
>
> Please don't get me wrong. I'm willing to try it, I even suggested this
> myself on d-u about a year ago.
>
>
>   

Yes, I remember.

Soon after I started Debian, I discovered NewbieDOC (around 2001). There 
were about 7 or 8 developers then. About half the traffic on the 
newbiedoc-devel list was newbies seeking help with Debian issues rather 
than doc development issues. I had a lot of help myself from the list, 
and after a while I was able to offer help in my turn. You just need to 
pick the posts that you feel are within your grasp. It is often quite 
simple things like "how can a start X?", "how do I shut down?", etc.

The alternatives are a forum or the wiki method for questions/answers eg 
http://newbiedoc.berlios.de/wiki/Questions. With the wiki you can opt 
(after logging in) to have email notification of changes. Or use RSS.

-- 
Chris.