[mythtv-users] constant flames against people that are new tothelist - can't we all be adults here?

[Tim Harvey]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org [mailto:mythtv-users-
> bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Jarod C. Wilson
> Sent: Friday, October 03, 2003 3:25 AM
> To: Discussion about mythtv
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] constant flames against people that are
new
> tothelist - can't we all be adults here?
> 
> On Thursday, Oct 2, 2003, at 13:27 US/Pacific, Boyd II, Willy wrote:
> 
> >> I didn't say people should 'search' the documentation. I said they
> >> should read all of it in its entirety. Yes, there are those with a
> >> "special skill" that can get through without reading everything,
but
> >> I'm saying everyone should take to read ALL the documentation.
> >
> > <sarcasm> YES, just like every geek on this list (myself included)
> > reads
> > every singe line
> > of his new home theater instruction manual, or video game console
> > manual
> > (ok... maybe when I'm bored & interested) </sarcasm>
> >
> > No, we search it when we have a problem.  Inputs not working?  Check
> > the
> > table-of-contents, check out that chapters on cabling.  Skim the
> > index, oh
> > ok: audio setup instructions are on page 62... etc etc.
> 
> Perhaps adding a google-esque search capability to the docs page would
> help, since many people's manual searches aren't so hot... Dunno how
> hard that would be to add. One could always simply post the docs in
> their entirety on the mailing list, and let gossamer handle the
> searching (not sure if there is a message length limit).
> 

I think posting the docs to the list is just redundant.  Having a
google-esque search to the docs would definitely help.  How do we make
it happen?  

> > Maybe I'm different, but anyone I know that likes to tinker is the
> > type that
> > just likes to plug it all together and *does* not read every word of
> > the
> > instruction manual for anything unless it's for pure education.  But
> > then
> > again we have really good searching skills, as the previous post was
> > talking
> > about...
> 
> Okay, so I don't usually read the entire manual for most things
either.
> But MythTV is a bit different than a television set. I managed to get
> my entire system working the first time without asking anyone
anything.
> Granted, I beat my head against the wall quite a bit, and spent about
> 30 hours getting to the point where I had a functional system, but
this
> was pre-0.9, when PVR-x50 support was only in CVS (so no rpms publicly
> available) and not yet heavily documented. I can now install from
> bare-metal in about 2:30 under RHL9, including all errata, though I
> have the install process mostly committed to memory...
> 

Same goes for me... I beat my head against the wall but finally got it
working without posting any questions.  For me, using the rpm's actually
screwed me up in a way.  I had no problems using AT's rpms to get a 0.11
system up an running... absolutely no problems and it only took an hour
or two.  But, when I realized I wanted to get involved and tried to
switch over to using CVS I got really hosed up.  I ended up completely
reinstalling as I'm just not a linux guru.  AT's rpms tend to put things
in different places than the Makefiles generated from the CVS versions.
This was just my experience.

Once I got things running though, I immediately got confused on 'how to
use MythTV'.  I really think we should split up the documents and have a
'RPM based Installation Guide' (such as your guide), a 'CVS based
Installation Guide' (pretty much what the current documentation is), a
'Frequently Asked Questions' (the current docs take a stab at this with
Section 21, but its lacking a lot of faq's from the list), and a
'UserGuide' (which I haven't seen anything close to yet).  

In addition I really think something should be done about this
mythtv-users mailing list as the traffic it gets is so high.  I commend
all of you for apparently reading all of it... personally I'm on the
verge of unsubscribing to myth-users because I can't read all the
threads and still get my real work done.  I would rather see key
developers working on the project rather than spending hours a day
reading through the list.  Perhaps I'm highly inefficient at reading the
list?  I'm using Outlook (yuck!) and its threaded capability pretty much
sucks, but I ran into problems with some of the obvious alternatives as
well (I can't get Mozilla to inline attachments from the commit list,
and I can't really migrate my mail-reading platform to Linux and use
Evolution... wish it was avail for Windows).

Comments?

> --Jarod
> 
> --
> Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE
> 
> Got a question? Read this first...
>      http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
> MythTV, Red Hat Linux 9 & ATrpms documentation:
>      http://pvrhw.goldfish.org/tiki-page.php?pageName=rh9pvr250
> MythTV Searchable Mailing List Archive
>      http://www.gossamer-threads.com/archive/MythTV_C2/