[ubuntu-uk] LUGs

[Sean Miller]

Alan Pope wrote:
> My local LUG meets are great fun. They are a tremendously social event with 
> a lot of chat and general shooting the breeze.
>
> The tech stuff can get deep but it's not like you have to sit and talk to 
> someone about the subtleties of one kernel config parameter over another, 
> you can just go and talk to someone else if you're getting geeked at.
>   
LUGoG meetings are generally good fun and fairly light hearted... 
there's access to a kitchen and a kettle at the hall in which we meet, 
so it's all quite sociable...

Whilst I've seen conflict on the e-mail list associated with the group 
(though rarely!) I've never seen conflict at the actual meetings... 
everybody gets on like a house on fire... (famous last words, the next 
will no doubt now descend into chaos on principle, lol!)

The advantage that LUGoG has over e-mail mutual support lists is that 
people can actually bring their equipment to the meeting and people can 
help them fix their issues there and then... rather than saying "type 
this... type that... it should say this... then type this and it will be 
fixed" and get the reply "but it didn't say that! it said 'failed to 
find library xxhdy1kdh3 in kernel module dhjsdh234gd.j34h1gd.4'" etc. 
etc... things can be resolved there and then, or if not a member will 
volunteer to meet the person again (perhaps at home if, for example, 
it's a broadband issue that can't be replicated at the meeting) and 
it'll get sorted one way or another.

Andrew Walrond, the creator of the "Heretix" distro, has been doing a 
lot of presentations lately at the more structured 2nd Tuesday meeting 
and they are of a very high quality. Demonstrating ways to share one's 
desktop over the web is useful too, because it means that people on the 
group can help out others on the group directly rather than in the 
aforementioned "I suggest you do that" style... "can I just log into 
your machine, please, and take a look then I'll get back to you" is far 
more constructive... the "in person" meetings help to build that trust 
that is likely to have a member say "sure!"... and then things move...

Just my thoughts on this particular discussion.

Sean