[slightly O.T. - IRC ] was Re: Rutebook and a lot more

[Peter Garrett]

On Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:55:36 +0200
Mario Vukelic <mario.vukelic at dantian.org> wrote:

> On Fri, 2008-08-29 at 23:31 +0200, Knapp wrote:
> > I wonder as I read your remark, if you have been on these channels and
> > what problems you had? 
> 
> In fact not. I just know the debian channel, and it's no place for
> people who don't know how to connect to IRC.

#ubuntu is not #debian :) In general #ubuntu is quite friendly and tries to be helpful.

> ...but how will they deal with a very quickly growing population
> of newbies with frequently bad manners, who were invited to _expect_
> competent help by such a prominent placement of IRC?

In 2005-6, #ubuntu had a few hundred people. Now it has over a thousand.
It's true that the general competence of help has deteriorated, IMO. I
would say that you still have a good chance of finding someone who can
understand a problem, or at least point you to a help URL .

Some of us who used to spend a lot of time trying to help eventually
suffered from compassion fatigue ;-) ( Well, i did, anyway...) When
that happens it's a good idea to take an extended holiday from IRC,
because you run the risk of starting to sound like some of the #debian
veterans.

Having said that, I would point out that #debian is pretty tame these
days compared to the way it was in c. 2002-3 when I used to hang out
there. Despite the brusque tradition, I learnt a great deal in that
channel.

Summary: IRC is good for people who are motivated to learn, and
interested. It is not so good for the kind of beginner who expects
solutions to be handed over on a silver platter :)

Peter
-- 
"INX Is Not X" Live CD based on Ubuntu 8.04 : http://inx.maincontent.net
Screenshots slideshow: http://inx.maincontent.net/album/1.png.html
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