Good note Nate,
>1. For those volunteering to work on various "FAQ" documents. Try to >get your work into the true Debian FAQ's and not some strange offshoot >FAQ only available on the web somewhere. The only problem I see with this is that the current FAQ's are highly technical and prepared by people who clearly know a lot about debian. Sometimes this leads to a style and content which is not really newbie friendly IMHO. It can be hard to see how a "newbie guide" could be incorporated into some of the established FAQ's. >2. Posting a large FAQ to the list regularly is a bad idea for those who >have to pay for bandwidth. Good point. >3. The IRC servers available for Debian have EXCELLENT support tools, >including a couple of indispensable infobots named dpkg and apt. Dpkg >helps people look for .deb's in the unstable or stable trees, and apt is >an infobot that has been taught a wealth of things. Again a great suggestion. The problem is that a newbie is unlikely to use an IRC infobot for the real basics. >4. Bandwidth: Don't copy the entire message inline that you're replying >to! We don't all need to read it again, just clip :-) >5. People answering questions should try to use references to on-line >documentation whenever possible. Some of the best answers here essentially show a newbie how to find it out for themselves but also answer the question posed by the poster. This means they get the problem sorted out quickly but also gain the tools they need to answer their own questions in the future. Good post, thanks. Jason.
