On 12/24/06, Dinesh Joshi dinesh.a.joshi@gmail.com wrote:
Well this "problem" is not just faced by *this* LUG. Any discussion forum faces such "lazy" newbies. They either get RTFM or ignored. So this really isn't worth discussing.
For one, a normal user is "lazy". More often than not, many of these users are not adept at searching the internet for resources. It's not even like everyone has a friend who is a Linux savvy person. With windows these users generally have a friend/relative/colleague who is informed enough to help them out.
Also in the past, LUGs have come across as a sort of customer service for GNU/Linux so that it gets more acceptance/coverage. It's perception developed over the years than anything else; just like "hackers break into systems".
I don't remember the welcome email but did it have a link to the usage guidelines or were the guidelines part of the email? If it's a link then most users will never take the trouble of clicking on the link. Of course, too much text in the email also means that the user merely skims through. We probably need a useful welcome email (and the monthly reminder mail) that reminds users that they can use Google or the ILUG search engine to get answers to their troubles first.
Regards,