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Rockbox mail archiveSubject: Re: Some thoughtsRe: Some thoughts
From: Christopher Chaltain <cchaltain_at_austin.rr.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:43:20 -0500 Well, for my own $0.02, I didn't find any of the posts in this thread patronizing. I personally try to paste the relevant sections from the manual into my post when I answer a question, but I frequently wonder why I should have to, especially for Rockbox. Rockbox isn't a Windows application you pay for where you should expect to just click on a set up file and get support when things don't go smoothly. Rockbox is open source replacement for the firmware on your portable media player, and I think you should expect to have to spend some time in the manual and on the web site. Furthermore, being open source, no one is paid to maintain this list or support anyone. Although I personally didn't find anyone patronizing, I did find people blatantly ignoring the list etiquette. I find this disrespectful and irresponsible myself. I personally am not a big fan of the "no top posting" policy, but I try to follow it religiously since it is the list etiquette that I implicitly agreed to when I joined the list. I understand there are people with different levels of computer skills, but I don't want this list to be a list where we spend time improving people's computer skills. There are other lists and services for that. I wouldn't want to see a bunch of list traffic on this list on how to use your email client, your screen reader or your browser. If I recall, the question that started this had to do with how to upgrade a media player and where to find the manual and the image to download. I myself was at a loss as to how to answer those questions since I always thought those were pretty straightforward things to find out. I hadn't picked up Rockbox in about a year and a half, but when I decided to upgrade to Rockbox 3 last Christmas, I was actually surprised at how easy everything was to locate and how quickly I got one media player upgraded and the other installed from scratch. I'm not saying things can't be improved. I think people have freely admitted that the web site and documentation could be improved. I also think we could do with a lot less emotion on this list. Maybe some people could choose their words a bit more carefully and be a bit freer with URL's and citations, but I think people could also be more willing to do some research on their own and reflect that when they ask a question. People could also be a bit less thin skinned and not interpret every answer they don't like as patronizing or getting jumped on. Also, threats to leave the list don't bother me too much, but then I'm not an administrator, and I figure people that threaten to leave the list probably aren't the same people answering questions and helping out. I personally like a tightly run list, and I think the documentation and the web site has a great wealth of information and are invaluable resources. I don't see anything wrong with people being directed to them. I'd much rather be part of a tightly run list than those lists where questions are all over the map and flame wars spring up over and over again. In fact, I'd actually suggest a bit of tolerance just to avoid these threads that pop up on the list etiquette and the list management, but what I'd really like is people who are more willing to adhere to the list etiquette and who are more appreciative of the list itself and the people who are willing to maintain it. The above is just my $0.02, and it probably isn't even worth that much. I'm just a list member who mostly lurks and occasionally asks or answers a question. No one should get bent out of shape over anything I say or do. -- Christopher cchaltain_at_austin.rr.com ------------------------------------------------------------------- List admin: http://cool.haxx.se/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rockbox FAQ: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GeneralFAQ Etiquette: http://www.rockbox.org/mail/etiquette.htmlReceived on 2009-04-23 Page template was last modified "Tue Sep 7 00:00:02 2021" The Rockbox Crew -- Privacy Policy |