Fedora support etiquette, need suggestions

[Eric Diamond]

Arron,

I'd like to help. Please contact me directly. 

There is a lot (make that A LOT) of material out there
that we can use as examples and, with the current
maintainers permission of course, direct sources for
much of the user side of this.

To all: If you know of any good documents of this type,
please submit links... Thx.

I had worked all day to a reply to the previous thread,
and then after the fourth rewrite (I kept dropping into
either rant or lecture modes...) I decided to give it a
rest. Last night, having a couple of beers with a
friend, we hit upon what I think is the key to this,
though. And you've actually summed it up nicely with the
new thread subject. 

This isn't just another linux geek fourm. This is the
one and only 'Official' support location for Fedora Core
stable releases. Yes it's a volunteer effort, but that
doesn't change the fact that what we're really doing
here is providing customer support, for customers of all
levels. What we really need is a document describing
appropriate procedures for those who volunteer to
provide that support.

I know I'm new to THIS list, but I've been in the
business for going on 25 years. I the short time I've
been an active member (less than a week...) I've seen
several question posters who have been PO'ed enough to
start rants (like the one that started this). OK, so
SOME ranting is good. :-/ 

But, and I think this is much more important, I have see
at least two absolute newbies who admitted they didn't
know anything in their post, get shot down for breaking
some point of netequette they'd already said they didn't
know. One left what was actually a very polite parting
shot. The other just stopped responding without ever
getting an answer.

I haven't gone looking for others, those two examples
were maddening enough. Finding more would just do bad
things for my blood pressure.

OK, see what I mean! [Rant Off]

The whole point of this list is to be THE place for
Fedora Core users of all competencies to come when they
need help. There are no guru's and there are no stupid
users. There are simply many people, from all over the
world, with infinitly varying skill levels, all coming
together in one place to further a common goal. Respect
and patience should be our guides.

Eric Diamond
eDiamond Networking & Security
303-246-9555
eric at ediamond.net