Carpetsmoker, check your email for a message from me & please respond.

Welcome drhowarddrfine

This place was started due to the "issues" that bsdforums created. Several of us did not agree with their policies (which are not in the spirit of BSD) and so this place got started.

Hope you stick around.

Thanks but you'll all regret it. 

Well, hopefully, we can politely send those folks over to pcbsdforums, which is more designed to help the newcomer. 

Anyway, we'll see what happens.

Well, with the good comes the bad.

We are seeing a changing demographic come to the *BSD's.  Be it schools/universities, the increased exposure or acceptance of Linux and/or Open Source, the entrance of Asia into the global market, or simply the cheap price, younger & more inexperienced people are arriving at our doorstep.  They don't have much experience, their troubleshooting skills are weak, & they may or may not have the discipline to research & study manpages.  There are a myriad of issues (some old, some new...) which make up this new newbie soup.

Traditionally, the *BSD's have been relatively small projects especially in comparison to Linux.  The number of resources or infrastructure in place just aren't the same.  Yet, the newbies who show up here or at other *BSD forums want & sometimes demand help simply because they don't have any other avenue to resolve their problems.

What compounds the situatlon is that some expect to be taught.  I have come to the realization that forum sites shouldn't delude themselves into thinking that they will teach, but they can (& will...) provide guidance.  There is a distinct difference between teaching & guiding, but the distinction is subtle.  The difference lies in the taking responsibility for learning one's self & not expecting others to ensure that every rock has been turned over for them.  Seeking truth usually means sifting through a lot of unvarnished meta-truths.

Labeling the *BSD's as elitist is usually done out of anger.  The *BSD projects are still largely run by developers & not marketing departments nor advertising firms.  As such, there is an underlying assumption of knowing the tools & terrain just as a developer would.  Forum sites tend to handle the traffic which isn't quite ready for the project mailing lists, so we need to understand that we will be fielding a lot of expectations which may or may not be realistic.

Lastly, don't misconstrue these comments as belittling newbies.  We were all there once, & learning is a journey.  At their best, forum sites help illuminate productive directions & show people how they can help themselves.

Must not be married...