Hi all, looking for information and find this post, I thought as typical that I hit it... I also find something that I will continue to bring up in that when someone is having problems with a certain command or you suggest an entry such as with sources.list, give them a break and give them the line they need to enter. Not just 'contrib/non-free' if you are new, one you might not know about sources.list or especially what needs to be in the line. As is typical, that was done here, and they had to ask more times for information on how that line is entered. It would have saved them and the rest of us from searching through stuff to find the line format.

I only mention this because I have a good IT background in hardware and software, but I still see the short answer then 10 questions and replies about how to type it in or where to look for help etc... If you are going to enter something and you dont' have the machine, then tell them so and advise them where to look (which should always be there). You guys that are old hands might just need a nudge in the correct direction, but if you are just moving to Linux, you have lots to learn. Remember when you had to learn it?

I have also closed threads that I didn't give the solution, as I didn't think it mattered, but it does, when you close make sure the answer is there for people in the future that are looking for solved problems, if the answer isn't there, then we aren't doing what we need to help all of us be better at what we do..

JMHO....

Jack

So you resurrected an old thread just to post this sermon?

1) Your post has nothing to do with the thread in question.

2) The people asking again and again should search the forums where they will find thousands of threads on how to configure sources.list and install the flash plugin.

3) I went to duckduckgo.com and entered 'debian flash plugin'. The first result:
http://wiki.debian.org/FlashPlayer

4) Next I searched for 'debian sources.list'. The first result:
http://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList

To be specific:
http://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList#E...7_.22Wheezy.22

Yea, I guess. I had questions about it and came over here expressly for an answer and there was none. As I've stated that I've done it before and just thought if I'd leave a note that the next person wouldn't have too. Sorry about the sermon, it wasn't meant to be that way, but I've only stated items that I have run into and though the rest of you would like to 'be advised' that we could make it better. Is that sermon or over peoples heads? I wasn't trying to stir up anything, just make more of a point to assist. As was needed in this conversation, it would have limited it to one interaction.

My apologies... No offense intended

Jack

People learn by being pointed in the correct direction and, usually, following that up with some reading. That is why solutions are often step by step. The idea is to help people help themselves, not simply spoon-feed information. A board like this is users helping other users, not an instruction manual. The goal is to teach newcomers how to understand the manual, not copy it. Speaking of which, if a beginner wants information on things like sources.list and installing packages on a specific system, the first place to look should be that distribution's web site. Hence, pointing people to the manual is also appropriate.

Yes, I agree as was stated in my first notation, but the more you leave them with the more and easier it is to get them up and going for self help. Like I stated to give them direction of where to find this information would be greatly appreciated. How difficult is it to give them a link or directions to a man page? It took me a while before I found that I could direct man to a sequenced page to find other information. I still, have requested, but not found any way to search the man pages for a command or something that I could use the man pages for if I didn't know the command, which seems like an obvious way to search out information.

Just trying to let others know what I think would help make this better. Where do you draw the line at how many times someone has to come back and ask for more help? I know I've had to do it and from the looks of the communications almost all take a number of times for something simple to be communicated to the requesting party. I think if we could do it in a couple exchanges we would make the service and use easier and give them a way to enhance their use and ability to fix their own problems.

If you know nothing about what you need to do, we need to add references or indications of where to find this stuff... It's not so obvious and it isn't meant to be hidden...

I just don't feel we need to hold bait out in front of someone who has a problem and would like help in fixing that. Not to make them ask repetitively how to enter a command or some other option, like adding a line in the sources.list file, which I still and not sure I completely understand how that works. And I've been using it for over 8 months...


Jack

Hi,

at the risk of contributing to a thread that is _way_ off topic...

I didn't see such a request. But perhaps you are looking for something like the "apropos" command.

Spoon feeding is the worst thing to do. It causes users to keep coming back asking questions that they could trivially answer themselves if they had ever learnt how to find and read relevant documentation.

Have you looked at http://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList? If there is something that isn't clear about that page feel free to start a new thread asking for clarification.

Please note that LQ is a community, and a resource for those in the community, it is not simply a "service" for noobs.

Evo2.