Mark_in_Hollywood
April 25th, 2008, 01:29 PM
I write as a Ubuntu user of about 2 years duration. I write about how to make the help forums a little less cumbersome. (PLEASE -- this is only a suggestion)
When I first installed Breezy, I over-thought the work and stupidly (stupidly in retrospect) bought an internal dial-up modem. This modem had the necessary hardware to be a fully functional Linux modem. That never proved to be true, however. If you remember pre-Linux in M$, you will recall only 4 COM ports originally but only 2 IRQs. And the modem firmware like to set itself on COM 5. So my first 50 or 75 posts were related to making Linux do what I wanted. As I've never taken a programming course in any computer language I was as lost as I could be. I had used MS-DOS since ver. 3.3 and could type at a command line, so in Linux, using the terminal and (blessedly) cutting and pasting others ideas or solutions was simplicity itself.
I'm still trying to give back what technical knowledge I have to someone else to make up for the huge number of posts I have. Which brings me to why I write this post.
The Beginner's Forum has always had questions that aren't beginner questions since I first started with Ubuntu. And while this in itself doesn't matter if people get help, it crowds that forum with posts that belong elsewhere. For example, if there was a dial-up modem part of the Hardware Forum, then it would have been seen by users with dial-up modem experience. Of which, I eventually became one.
After installing HH, my Brother MFC-240C printer/scanner/copier/fax wouldn't scan. After stumbling around I downloaded some "sane" stuff Gimp now finds the scanner. If there had been a Brother Hardware sub-forum, I might have found what I was looking for without having to ask for help, which, before I fixed it myself, had 27 views and no replies at that time. I'm trying to save other's efforts or re-direct them to do the most good. As Ubuntu gathers steam and more people switch to it or at lease dual-boot with M$, dividing the labor of those who help into more efficient forums, could prevent stress of beginners.
Thank you for your time in reading this. Mark Preston forum name: Mark_in_Hollywood
When I first installed Breezy, I over-thought the work and stupidly (stupidly in retrospect) bought an internal dial-up modem. This modem had the necessary hardware to be a fully functional Linux modem. That never proved to be true, however. If you remember pre-Linux in M$, you will recall only 4 COM ports originally but only 2 IRQs. And the modem firmware like to set itself on COM 5. So my first 50 or 75 posts were related to making Linux do what I wanted. As I've never taken a programming course in any computer language I was as lost as I could be. I had used MS-DOS since ver. 3.3 and could type at a command line, so in Linux, using the terminal and (blessedly) cutting and pasting others ideas or solutions was simplicity itself.
I'm still trying to give back what technical knowledge I have to someone else to make up for the huge number of posts I have. Which brings me to why I write this post.
The Beginner's Forum has always had questions that aren't beginner questions since I first started with Ubuntu. And while this in itself doesn't matter if people get help, it crowds that forum with posts that belong elsewhere. For example, if there was a dial-up modem part of the Hardware Forum, then it would have been seen by users with dial-up modem experience. Of which, I eventually became one.
After installing HH, my Brother MFC-240C printer/scanner/copier/fax wouldn't scan. After stumbling around I downloaded some "sane" stuff Gimp now finds the scanner. If there had been a Brother Hardware sub-forum, I might have found what I was looking for without having to ask for help, which, before I fixed it myself, had 27 views and no replies at that time. I'm trying to save other's efforts or re-direct them to do the most good. As Ubuntu gathers steam and more people switch to it or at lease dual-boot with M$, dividing the labor of those who help into more efficient forums, could prevent stress of beginners.
Thank you for your time in reading this. Mark Preston forum name: Mark_in_Hollywood