Re: cygwin and GPL (again)

[Christopher Faylor <cgf@redhat.com>]

On Wed, Feb 14, 2001 at 11:50:06PM -0500, Dennis McCunney wrote:
>> >It might cut down on some of the less topical questions.
>>
>> I suppose so.  I have reached a bemused/depressed state where
>> I really can't believe that this kind of thing is really necessary
>> but it probably is.
>
>It's inevitable, really: as Cygwin grows more popular, more folks who
>_aren't_ developers already familiar with *nix will grab it, and ask
>*nix/programming newbie questions about it.

Oh yes, don't get me wrong.  I've been involved in Usenet for 17 years
or so, so I know how the games goes.  I still find it depressing that
the modus operandi for so very many people is to start firing away with
questions before taking stock of things.

The problem is that this mailing list is becoming increasingly less
interesting to me personally.  It was actually stimulating to see people
discussing how to speed up stat().  However, those kind of discussions
are drowned out by "My ssh doesn't work! I tried everything! Help!"
messages and this is not going to ever improve here.  Ever.

>Making as clear as possible as early as possible that this ain't the
>place to ask 'em can't hurt.  Cygwin is for developers who need to port
>from *nix to NT, and want the familiar tools and a POSIX layer to make
>it easier.  It implicitly assumes you know various things.  If you
>don't, you'll get real confused, real fast.  This needs to be stated up
>front.

Yeah, but pessimistically speaking, I'll bet that it will have only a
minor effect.  The problem is that people don't care to read what is in
front of them until they have a problem.  By the time they have a
problem, the welcome message will be in the trash can.

But, if a change to the welome message helps even a few people, it
is worth it.

>> If someone wants to contribute some words, I'll add them.
>
>I seem to be on a roll with this, so I'll do it.  Can you email me what the
>listbot currently sends?  It's been some time since _I_ subscribed, and I
>don't think I still have the welcome message.

Here it is (not to wordy, is it?):

Acknowledgment: I have added the address

!A

to the <#l#> mailing list.

Welcome to <#l#>@cygwin.com!

Please save this message so that you know the address you are
subscribed under, in case you later want to unsubscribe or change your
subscription address.

cgf

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