mentors

[Paul W. Frields]

On Thu, 2005-07-28 at 10:45 -0700, Karsten Wade wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-07-28 at 14:36 +0800, Marc Wiriadisastra wrote:
> 
> > I personally have spent numerous days learning how to build rpm's as well
> > as trying to follow the fedora package naming and layout conventions and I
> > thought wouldn't that be a great idea.  If someone is interested in
> > learning provided they don't waste peoples time by actually WANTING to
> > contribute maybe a mentors list go get them from a newbie/basic
> > contributor to an active member of the support/devel crew.
> 
> This is an interesting idea.
> 
> One of the problems facing knowledgeable contributors in mentoring new
> contributors is separating the wheat from the chaff on current mailing
> lists.  When you do get a chance to mentor, the quality post is easily
> lost in the flying chaff around it.
> 
> A list that was specifically for mentoring would have all manner of
> posts to it, technical, cultural, packaging, why to (v. how to), etc.
> However, the purpose for mentors to post would be to grow the knowledge
> and culture.  Getting answers in the archives where they can be searched
> and understood.

I don't want to throw cold water on what I think is a really good idea.
But it bears mentioning that it would be *very* easy for this list to
become "fedora-list II."  That's not a judgment call on the worth of
fedora-list, just a note that the f-mentoring-l would become redundant
if that happened.

> In this case, a requirement (or strong suggestion) of joining the
> mentors list is to thumb through the archives.  New contributors who
> read the archives can be answering questions for other newbies, thus
> carrying on the chain.

Why doesn't this become a feature of FedoraForum.org instead?  That kind
of presentation for this information is much more popular and less
intimidating than mailing lists, plus it means that people who are not
happy to receive large amounts of email daily are more likely to
participate, even if it is sporadically.

> Ideally, a normal list should function in this mentoring fashion.  With
> such populated and work-intensive lists, however, the mentoring gets
> lost.

Exactly.

> Another possibility would be, when a mentor-type is posting something to
> any list that has good mentoring in it, they are asked to cross-post to
> fedora-mentoring-list.  Thus the list becomes a targeted location for
> mentoring activity all over the project.

I wonder if there's a way of enabling this from the forum side... not
sure since I don't run one.  Might be worth bringing it up with the
FF.org manager.

> Good idea!
> 
> If we work out the details, I'll sponsor starting the list, if you are
> interested in helping administrate and promote the idea.

If you're able to keep an appropriate dress code, it could work well.
I'm in favor of figuring out a way to hook the content to FF.org.

-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE                          http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
 Fedora Documentation Project: http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/docs/
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