OK, I’ll bite.
As always, I speak for myself here, not for Qubes.
Although @gust wont be back to this thread, I want to correct some
serious untruths, that may mislead other users.
gust says that they have been involved with Qubes for more than 5 years. I
doubt that in that time they have ever seen swearing from @adw.
I did a quick search, and in the past 5 years, the only uses of RTFM
I found in the user facing groups (qubes-users and Forum) were where
people used it of themselves: “Yes, I RTFM”, “Duh, I should RTFM”,
and the like. (I’m excepting here some uses aimed at Drew White on the
mailing list, but they, like him, were a special case.)
There is a code of conduct that specifically precludes swearing or
unpleasantness, and it is policed by the mods.
There "are* more users, and everyone thinks that’s a good thing. The
Qubes team have worked to make Qubes more available to new users, and to
make it easier to use.
Members of the forum, whether part of the team or not, give their time
to help new users as much as they can.
Sometimes it’s useful to point to the docs, but generally people go out
of their way to help new users by hand holding them through a solution.
There’s no evidence that any one thinks that more users is a bad thing.
I don’t understand the accusation of hostility - I don’t hear it. Nor do I
hear condescension. There was no swearing, or “hitting members with the f
word”. Why say there was? Why tell lies?
Let’s look at what actually happened in this thread. Is it true that
there any one proposed “the false idea that the original question
should have known in advance that this is not a qubes issue”?
@fiftyfourthparallel asked a question.
I replied. I have a stock reply saved - “Many problems that people have
in Qubes are actually not Qubes specific. This is one of those.”
When I use this I invariably provide the answer, and point out any Qubes
specific features.
That’s exactly what happened here.
The discussion them moved to whether it would be possible to delimit
Qubes specific from non-Qubes specific issues.
In the course of that discussion i did use RTFM -
In many cases I see people posting questions where the answer is
either RTFM or STFW. In **many** cases, the Qubes element is small.
That might be the answer, but as I’ve tried to make clear, that
isnt the answer that is given in the Forum or on the mailing list.
So much for gust’s remarks - they seem to me to be based on untruth.
Now some general comments.
It’s true that the number of Qubes users seems to have increased.
It’s equally true that the number of posts where the answer is
in the docs, or has already been provided on the Forum, is increasing.
I don’t know the reason for this - maybe it’s because a forum lends
itself to this, or perhaps users new to Linux aren’t used to digging for
themselves, or perhaps new users think that Qubes is some organisation
with deep pockets and well paid support staff, or something else. I don’t
know.
I do know that the core team is tiny, and the number of contributors
has not kept in step with the number of users.
You can see this in the Forum too.
Anyone is capable of contributing to Qubes - even if you cant write code
you can dig in by helping answer questions in the Forum, providing
guides, improving the docs, providing feedback.
Any one can contribute to the docs, whether the official or the
community docs. If something isnt clear, make it clear.
There’s another thing that gust said that was misleading. Let me make
it clear - you don’t need permission from anyone to dig in.
If you have an idea for a guide, or for something you think will be
helpful, or somewhere where the docs need help, you don’t need to get
permission. Just do it. If it’s wrong. it will be corrected. If it’s
worthwhile it will grow and be useful to others.
Any one can contribute. Not many do. In fact, I see a increasing
tendency to say that something needs to be done and the devs/mods should
do it.
Don’t be like that - do it for yourself.
When I comment in the Forum or in the mailing lists I speak for myself.