Gustavo Seabra wrote:
On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 10:51:56 -0500, David Curry <dsccable@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:I'm very much aware of the effort you and Duncan Lithgow have put forward, Gustavo, and James McKenzie before you. Comments were tendered to both you and James.
fedora-list archives contain a tremendous amount of information relevant to each fedora distribution or release. Retrieving that informaiton has proven problematic if one relies, or attempts to rely, on fedora-list archive search engine. SNIP
There has been a recent discussion about "list rules", and one of the
points discussed are list archives. Apparently, although MARC has a
good search engine, it fails in sorting the messages by subject, not
by reference, which leads to boken threads when someone makes small
changes to the subject. In this case, there's also the gmane archives,
which seem to have a good search engine, and to preserve the threads. The compilation (**NOT up-to-date**) of the draft list rules being
developed, that has links to the various archives, can be found here:
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~seabra/linux/FedoraRules.html
(scroll down to "part 2: useful resources" to find archives.)
The thread titled, "Don't Waste Time on Fedora Mailing List Archive Searches - Search Engine Broken" was in part attributable to what I read on my first visit to your web page. Continuation of the same theme with the current thread is also partly attributable to the absence of change in the draft Unofficial
list rules. Belief that a sizeable share of new subscribers will only read what they see on the list also prompts the current thread. Some such subscribers will only subscribe after they encounter a problem or two and look for help.
My concern over the absence of change referred to in the preceeding paragraph is twofold -- archive searches and direction to local system documentation. Part 2 overlooks (ignores) comments I have made on those two subjects in response to the unofficial guide thread and the two threads on archive search that I initiated. And that is fine. It is your perogative to accept or reject comments I offer regarding your web page. It is my perogative to continue trying in my own fashion to help both newcomers to the list and those fedora experts contributing their time and energy to help others solve their technical puzzles.
Regarding fedora-list archive searches, your unofficial guide lists "Official archive from Redhat" first, then lists two other access points. I regard pointing anyone to Redhat official archives as a disservice unless that pointer warns them about the official archive's erractic, non-functional search engine.
The "Getting Help from your System" section in Part 2 of your unofficial guide also overlooks a significant source of local documentation stored in /usr/share/doc.
cheers,
Dave
