Am I assisting others in an ideal fashion?

[MaindotC]

I have a degree in Network Administration and I work as a Unix systems administrator so I usually spend all my time in Networking & Wireless. I've been biting my tongue for a lot of newbs - posting the Ubuntu Wireless Troubleshooting Guide (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide) and they claim they followed it and still can't connect (only to find out 56 posts later they modprobe the driver and it works...), helping set static ip's (https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/serverguide/C/network-configuration.html) because a newb "read it several times and just doesn't understand it", or sometimes venturing into the unknown - for example NetworkManager (https://launchpad.net/~network-manager) has been causing some mind boggling problems (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1573766) and unfortunately the best advice I've been able to help is installing Wicd (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WICD) which is really just a "work-around", not a solution.

It's really frustrating to go about these issues post-by-post so sometimes I'll help someone via Skype or share my desktop with WebCamStudio (http://www.ws4gl.org) and uStream to show a user how to complete a process. It's not too much work for me right now and I know I can just not pickup but I face a dilemma. I don't know if it's more important to help a user get Ubuntu working and perhaps that help I give will pay-forward to other users, or if I should be firm in encouraging RTFM even though it may take someone more time to RTFM than they are willing to spend learning Ubuntu (or other *nix variants).

I want to help others because I was a newb just like them, and I asked the same idiotic questions like "hey here's this wireless driver from Acer that was specifically developed for my laptop and it even has a README file...but what do I do with it?" I want to give back, indirectly, to those who have given to me, but I don't know if I'm doing the right thing by taking phone calls. It reduces the amount of time taken to get a user running, but there's no documentation being made and I'm not sure they're returning the favour by contributing to a wiki or something to help the Ubuntu project grow.

Do you feel what I'm doing is right or does it even matter?

[mkvnmtr]

It seems that many people just can not understand the instructions. There is not much more you can do for them than just repeat a time or two. Then if they do not get it they can go to the testimonial thread and say how Ubuntu is not ready for prime time.

[whiskeylover]

Not everybody is tech savvy like you are. Some people are good at other things like, say, repairing cars, or making lasagnas. You can't expect everyone to have all the skills.

[wilee-nilee]

You can bring a horse to water....well you know the rest.

Some people want a magic box, some want to know everything and write code, and some are in between or beyond.

Don't take on any more personal responsibility other then not borking their OS.

[ssam]

maybe you could try to help get some of these work arounds built in to ubuntu.

for example in some cases wicd seems to work for people where networkmanager does not (i not had a problem with NM for years). i imagine there are also setups where NM works, but wicd fails, so switching the default probably would not help. but maybe it would be possible to track down the NM bugs that are effecting people, and try to get them fixed.

or could you design a network trouble shooting application. there was talk on the dev mailing list about what firfox should show when there is no network. if you had a good design ready by the next UDS then maybe someone would write it.

[cchhrriiss121212]

Do you feel what I'm doing is right or does it even matter?
The important thing is that you are helping people right? I don't think it is realistic to expect that every new user will contribute back to the community, so help them out in whatever way gets through to them.

I agree that a lot of problems for new Ubuntu users come from overly techical help documents. A good alternative/addition to these would be desktop videos, which can often show how something works in a simple visual format.
The video tutorials I have seen (for tricky things like jack audio production) have been very useful, but I have not seen any linked to in the community docs.

[snowpine]

I am not a mod :) but my personal opinion is, so long as you are respectful and follow the Code Of Conduct, RTFM is a perfectly acceptable response.

[whiskeylover]

I am not a mod :) but my personal opinion is, so long as you are respectful and follow the Code Of Conduct, RTFM is a perfectly acceptable response.

I'm pretty sure that telling someone to RTFM is not acceptable in these forums.

EDIT: Found this link (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=885580).

[Paul820]

If you are doing the instructions and it works, and you know it works, then i think you are doing all you can. Like others have said, some people just can't seem to follow instructions and then blame something/someone else because it didn't work.

[Elfy]

I am not a mod :) but my personal opinion is, so long as you are respectful and follow the Code Of Conduct, RTFM is a perfectly acceptable response.

I am :)

RTFM on it's own is not a perfectly acceptable response here.

When used with other help - docs/wiki even a link to a google search to point an prod people into the right direction then it is acceptable.

I think that the biggest issue is that when people come from windows and are used to searching for their help, doing so for linux help results in pages and pages of links leading to things that make very little sense - they've not learnt the language yet.

That said I am sure that google only starts to work in a new linux install after a few months ...

@strAlan - to answer you form my point of view - we all help in whatever way we choose to - if the way that you help people suits you - then more power to you.

[ubunterooster]

Do you feel what I'm doing is right or does it even matter?
It doesn't really matter to me as long as you don't PM me for help if you are not on my friends list. ;)

It would be preferred to have it on record but the important part is that they get the help they need.

[MaindotC]

It doesn't really matter to me as long as you don't PM me for help if you are not on my friends list. ;)

F added!