[oclug] OCLUG needs a newbies night

[Brad Barnett]

On Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:51:08 +0000
William Case <billlinux at rogers.com> wrote:

> Hi;
> 
> On Wed, 2009-03-04 at 14:36 -0500, Ian! D. Allen wrote:
> > I would recommend that the current Tuesday meetings be clearly branded
> > "for experienced Linux users only" until such time as OCLUG decides
> > if/how to cater to the new users.
> > 
> > OCLUG needs to figure out if it wants to cater to new Linux users who
> > have issues.  The current masthead "Serving the Linux community in
> > the Ottawa area for 12 years" might mislead people with minimal Linux
> > knowledge into showing up for an OCLUG Tuesday and being completely
> > lost.
> 
> > 
> > I'm glad he didn't go; it would have been a big waste of his time.
> > He needs to have someone walk through a[n] [X]Ubuntu install on his
> > system (desktop and laptop) and help him deal with the issues he's
> > having. An OCLUG meeting is not a place where he will find the help
> > he needs, and the meetings should say that clearly and in big letters
> > right up front.
> 
> Roland Renaud who has been arranging speakers for the last year, has
> asked several times for suggested topics.  We discussed having
> lightening talks for newbies and as refresher for the rest of us at one
> of our recent meetings.  If newcomers want introductory talks, just
> email roland at oclug.on.ca.  I am sure there are plenty of members who are
> willing to do a quick talk and invite people to the beer sig for follow
> up.
> 

Hi Bill,

I think there is a miscommunication here.

It isn't really possible for a new Linux user, who is attending OCLUG for
the first time, and wanting help with his machine.. to email Roland
three months before he's tried Linux, and request help.

I think the reoccurring requested theme I've seen over this list for the
last seven years or so, is a permanent, every meeting night, help for
novices assist.

Keep in mind that you may be in a situation where you have relatively few
novices at the meeting, as meetings are over their head, and therefore
you have no novices to request tutorials!

Chicken and the egg thing, you know.  After all, would you want to be a
member of a club that taught you absolutely nothing useful, confused you
to no end, because everything was over your head?

Would you continue to go to meetings about iptables, you name it, when
you didn't know what 'ls' was?

Note, OCLUG may wish to remain more in the realm of the non-newbie.
Frankly, while I've done tons of work in the past assisting new users, I
have little desire to do so now.  I can't think of anything more draining
than helping grandma learn how to plug a USB flash drive into her
machine, again and again.

Probably a result of working in IT support for years, of course.

Maybe there should be an entirely different meeting night for new users,
staffed by not-quite-as-new-users.  I once was a member of a club, that
did just that.  Other years, said club, always started 2 hours earlier
for novices.  

Anyhow, just some thoughts.




> If there is a huge response we can arrange a tutorial night -- or
> something.
> 
> -- 
> Regards Bill
> Fedora 10, Gnome 2.24.3
> Evo.2.24.3, Emacs 22.2.1
> 
> -- 
> OCLUG general discussion list
> OCLUG at lists.oclug.on.ca
> http://oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/oclug