CentOS - May 2010 - IRC telling you to go to mailing list - it's for good reason ....

Just to answer the aspect of why people in IRC tell you to go to a mailing list
? because mailing list answers are more permanent that IRC, and also, it spreads
the knowledge of the question, and the answer over a much wider time frame
rather than just the two to three sentences that are involved in fixing your
situation. It also notifies the mailing list which is generally watched by the
devs/patchers/genius(is)/workaround guys/people from other distros/generally
smart people ? who could probably help you work through the problem, or at least
direct you to a page that can.

These days people treat IRC like a street market for info, there are no rules
other than do not paste more than 3 lines! (pastebin is your friend) and you can
say what you like to who you like, and log off, without so much as contributing
to the community. ?  At least by coming to the mailing list, or at least
searching the archives, the effort that had previously been exerted to answer
the question the first 20 times on the mailing list, will not be wasted.

IRC has been around for a long time, but unless the irc server is irc.(project
domain name here).org then expect it to be staffed by volunteers and people who
may not have the same focus as yourself. IRC is just one of a number of
resources. It a good spot for instant relief, (think street hooker), but the
mailing list is your wife!

*disclaimer* I do not advocate the use of street hookers, nor do I
discriminate/have any negative feeling towards against those who do, or indeed
are ? - I just wanted to make a point!

I think I made my point, all the resources are out there on the web, this is
open source, we don?t pay for it, be glad with the system that has actually
managed to evolve given the fact the only incentive has been to pass on
knowledge.

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On Sun, 30 May 2010, Gabriel - IP Guys wrote:
> Just to answer the aspect of why people in IRC tell you to 
> go to a mailing list ? because mailing list answers are more 
> permanent that IRC, and also, it spreads the knowledge of 
> the question, and the answer over a much wider time frame 
> rather than just the two to three sentences that are 
> involved in fixing your situation.
You omit mentioning that (from tracking latencies to 
appearing) the CentOS site, wiki, MLs, CentOS' planet are all 
regularly trawled by major search engines.  The Forum and the 
bug tracker are also indexed but less often. So an answer 
there in these non ephemeral 'gateway into being readily 
re-findable ... thus some of the extended posts I make
> These days people treat IRC like a street market for info, 
> there are no rules other than do not paste more than 3 
> lines! (pastebin is your friend) and you can say what you 
> like to who you like, and log off, without so much as 
> contributing to the community
Drive-bys and externalities are a problem and under the old 
design the CentOS wiki was not such a pigsty; some other team 
members lobbied for a less OCD approach on what is in and off 
topic, and how 'spoon-feeding' was treated. The jury is still 
out on this new approach in my mind; I know I get push back 
from old-timers who preferred the higher signal to noise 
ratio, and want 'quality' back as a preferred metric over 
'friendliness' ...
> IRC has been around for a long time, but unless the irc 
> server is irc.(project domain name here).org then expect it 
> to be staffed by volunteers and people who may not have the 
> same focus as yourself
The CentOS project has cloaks both for team members, and 
trusted sources in IRC nics to address the issue (think of the 
clerk at the local hardware store, wearing a distinctive 
over-vest to mark them ...)  A quick: /whois (nick) <CR> can 
tell a lot

-- Russ herrold