[mythtv-users] Please shut up!

Phill Wiggin alamar at gmail.com
Mon Jan 29 20:30:55 UTC 2007


>
> I agree with everything Yeechang said.
>
> b.
>

Maybe I have more empathy for newbies.  Maybe my years in tech support
(Teir1 up to 'manager') give me a different perspective...

MythTV is a great app, and it's hard not to try to share it with
everyone you know.  Unfortunately, only about 10% of the people _I_
know are Linux-literate, and I'd wager that about half of them aren't
able to deal with demystifying dmesg errors, modelines, ivtv issues,
and such.  Newbies, by nature, don't always know where the lines
between software packages are drawn.  Hell, sometimes I can't tell
what's causing problems.

Granted, the users list is for support of MythTV. BUT, you have to
admit that this list is a bazaar of people with fantastic and varied
skillsets.  I _know_ that if I come to this list with a question on
filesystems that someone here will have insight.  Even if it's just a
link.  But, I wouldn't have Clue #1 where to find the 'official
filesystem<x> mailing list', nor would I want to subscribe to it for a
one-time problemf fix.

Basically, what I'm saying is, this is a user list. not a power-user
list, not a dev-list.  Many users are the kinds of people that want
something to work, but aren't necessarily interested/able to track
down and understand all the nuances of the entire Linux experience.

People just want help, there's no need to berate them. If you don't
want to help, just hit delete and forget about it.  I can scan every
post to see if it's something I can answer in about 2 seconds per
post, and I read slow.  Going through 200 messages a day, that's 400
seconds, or about 7 minutes out of my whole day, assuming I look at
_every_ post (which I do not).  Scanning just the OPs to see if you
can/will help would probably take about 3 minutes out of a whole day.

In summary (because I like summaries):
 1) Cheetas run fast
 2) Stop bitching
 3) I like pie.

</soapbox>

--Phill W.


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