Rockbox.org home
release
dev builds
extras
themes manual
wiki
device status forums
mailing lists
IRC bugs
patches
dev guide



Rockbox mail archive

Subject: Re: Some thoughts

Re: 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.html
Received on 2009-04-23

Page template was last modified "Tue Sep 7 00:00:02 2021" The Rockbox Crew -- Privacy Policy