amanda

[Pat Riehecky]

On Tue, 2008-07-08 at 14:50 -0400, hike wrote:
> Have I missed something?
> 
> Joy Methew is flooding this mailing list with questions.
> 
> It appears that "the list" is setting up the server for Joy Methew.
> 
> Most of the questions appear to be textbook questions with easily found
> answers.
> 
> This question appears to answered in the error message; a file does not
> exist.  That is, amanda is not set up properly.
> 
> Is this the purpose of this mailing list?  I didn't think it was but if it
> is, that's fine; I just want to know.  (It is easy enough to add Joy Methew
> to the kill list.)

Everyone has questions. I know generally I am a leach on the lists I
join.  The experience there is often much greater than anything I can
offer.  The volume of questions is, in my opinion, not very concerning.
What concerns me about them is their lack of self study.  In my eyes a
list like this one is to help you learn.  It looks like Joy is out of
his depth, and such people do need help.

That being said I have not once responded to his threads because needing
help and deserving it are different.  Appealing to a random group of
people on the Internet who are trying to be helpful is a great place to
follow up your own research with.

Joy, help can be had here, but before you ask for it please utilize the
power of apropos, man, info, and google.  Each of these is an
indispensable tool in the world of Linux.  Generally people have had the
problems you have.  This is true for everyone.  Often they have written
how the fixed them, and the best fixes/examples have a tendency to find
their way into the documentation provided with the programs themselves.
These sources are likely to be less hostile than the list.  Not because
we are bad people, but I know sometimes I can be just a rude as.... yeah
where was i, but because someone already took the time to write out the
answer and give it to you.  I know that I have not the desire (or often
the time) to write out a nice guide as to what the process of building a
complex server entails.  The desire to even explain any of the terms
evaporates if it doesn't appear you are willing to try and meet us in
the middle.  Unix people are often accused of being elitist dicks who
have spent years learning this and expect you to do the same.  That is
occasionally the case, but generally we expect you to be resourceful,
this list is one of the resources, but never the first.  We are not here
to make you understand or force you to learn, but to help you figure out
the missing pieces.  Imagine this behavior in any other job.  If I were
a custodian and every time the tiniest thing went wrong I ran to my
supervisor.  The broom is in the wrong closet, the floor still has a
stain on it, this trash bag is moist, this cleaner is low, the vaccuum
sounds weird, and so on.  You would quickly find yourself unemployed.
Knowing what to take to your superiors and what not to take to them is
something you need to figure out for yourself.  With technology it is no
different.  If you are a technology professional, you are expected to
work at your job - just like any other.  If you are a hobbyist, then it
may seem a bit much work that we are requiring of you, but the majority
of people giving answers on this list are professionals.  We are used to
people bringing us their crap and expecting us to put a fine polish on
it, but in our day jobs we cannot refuse the most ridiculous of requests
from "da boss."  In our free tech support we can try for a more
idealized world.  And in doing so teach you to deal with the crap soon
coming from a friend who expects the exact same polish as put out by a
team of 100 people.  It makes you better at what you do, and leaves us
to the more complex (and interesting) problems.
Additionally it seems that English is not your first language, if the
errors are giving you an issue; there is likely a translation to a
language you are more comfortable with.  The local man pages contain
advice on how to switch to other languages.  Please avail yourself of
them if they can assist your understanding of what is going on.

I would oppose the banning any user from the list, nothing prevents a
resubscribe from another address.  If the question is deemed "unworthy"
the list as a whole will ignore it.  That is the way that seems to
involve the least overhead by the list admins.  They are gracious enough
to give us this forum, making work for them seems a bad call in my book.

$0.02 later,
Pat