Looking for good souls

goran at krampe.se goran at krampe.se
Tue Apr 25 06:02:50 UTC 2006


Hi people!

Roel Wuyts <Roel.Wuyts at ulb.ac.be> wrote:
> Hi Stef, you can count me in to show newbies around.
> 
> I have the same problems other *teachers* using Squeak have, and that  
> is that my students are afraid of this list (for various reasons). In  
> the past I even created local lists so that they could communicate  
> with me, some of my assistents, and each other. This has nothing to  
> do with splitting the list!

The above paragraph is interesting in that obviously this *is* a problem
for especially many teachers. I wasn't aware of that, and I am pretty
sure most of us weren't. But it seems logical, so once more: create the
darn list. :) (still not seeing it on
http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo)

> A stupid but effective way to guide people to this mailing list is:
> - having a clear footer that indicates that this is the new (or  
> whatever name) mailing list, and that talks about the 'real' mailing  
> list. No worries, as soon as they feel ready people will move.
> - the 'teachers' on the newbie list occasionaly have to reroute  
> questions once they get beyod newbie questions. It is that plain and  
> simple.

Agree.

> Note that adding such list will *grow* the community, not *split*  
> it... How can it split when the people that will answer the newbies  
> still belong to the squeak-dev as well ?! Do you think that because I  
> am answering newbies I will no longer be interested in squeak-dev ?!  
> This is crazy.

I also guess it will not in practice turn out harmful. Just note that
one scenario (however unplausible) is that squeak-dev gets "weaker" in
the sense that it misses out on all those
Simple-And-Obvious-Things-That-We-Oldtimers-Don't-See-Anymore. Numerous
frutiful discussions has started out with one of those "Sorry, but I
just don't get it..."-questions from a complete beginner.

But again, we will just see how it works.

> The 'do not split the mailing-lists' discussions in the past were  
> said in a completely different context than for helping out newbies.  
> We were talking about real variations of the language (with a real  
> danger of splitting) or the community (the developers versus the  
> sunday Squeakers). That is not the way to split this mailing list.  
> But for helping out newbies, that is a different cause alltogether.

Probably.

regards, Göran



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