[Gnu-arch-users] Debugging new user induction

[Robert Collins]

Hi all, 
        I think the apparent ease with which apparently intelligent folk can
get sidetracked down largely irrelevant paths, trying to 'fix' what the
old timers here consider 'already fixed' is a bug.

(Apologies in advance to Andreas. This is NOT meant as a snide ad
hominem attack. You have provided an excellent example however :)).

As an anecdote - I only recently started using tagline when the untagged
X command came around, because until then the tagging and strictness
concepts where conflated. We are now seeing that while arch has
separated those concepts, new folk here appear resistant to separating
the concepts in their minds. (I've been digging around in the roots of
Arch for quite a while now. Arch has always had a sort-of separation,
but until it was user tunable, it -appeared- conflated.)

What I think happens is that new users to arch have some more or less
preconcieved ideas about their 'ideal' RCS system, and look to shoehorn
arch into the same pattern. Then, when they are told there are better
ways, the better ways are rejected - on the basis that the new user
knows better.

It's a common pattern in mailing lists. I see it in squid, in cygwin,
here - all over the place. Some lists have it worse than others. Some
newcomers are worse than others. (Possibly proportional to their success
in their primary fields of endeavour.)

What can we do about this? 
  Offer cold-fish slapping by the geographically nearest arch user? 
  A special FAQ on "So you think arch is broken, and *you* know the
solution." ?
  
Rob

-- 
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