A Fun Experiment

Here's a fun experiment for you guys:

1. Go to your favorite social network and navigate to a Linux community or go your favorite Linux forum.
2. Now, post the easiest question you can think of (for best results be sure to mention Ubuntu or Linux Mint and talk about how you don't know why you have to use this "Terminal" thing or that you don't get what the big deal is about this "root" thing).
3. Sit back and enjoy the community tear itself to shreds.

The forum idea and how it has found itself into our social networks is a good idea. Here is a place all users can interact to sharpen their skills and help their fellow community members.

Unfortunately, people had to invade this Internet utopia and turn it into a mad house where unsuspecting "noobs" get their cyber butt kicked through every data center on this planet. (Uhgg...people...)

So, to prevent this, here are some tips to use when "helping" a new user online.

No Stupid Questions

   This is passé but forgotten nonetheless. Everyone is at a different stage    in their journey through the Linux underworld. If we are to gain new users and keep those users we have to recognize them for where they are at and help them gain a better understanding of their operating system. New users are a good thing, the more users we get the more support we get from hardware and software companies. By taking a step out of their comfort zone into a new, unknown OS that isn't known for its comfort and compatibility the new user is doing you, the seasoned user, a favor. Yeah thats it, treat the new user as if he or she is doing you a favor; as if he or she is the customer.

Keep your Distribution/DE/Display Server/Whatever Argument on Slashdot

   Really guys, some guy is just looking for a little help to get his graphics card up and working. If you don't use Ubuntu but use Arch instead don't comment saying "Ubuntu sucks I use Arch". That is not at all reassuring to the new user. Often times the user just installed an operating system for the first time and is unsure what they just did and how to undo it. By telling them that they may have installed the wrong operating system it frustrates and confuses them even more. Don't use that distribution so you don't know the answer? Move along, someone else will help. 

Save the language for when you're in your own basement trying to solve your own problems.

By constantly expanding the readers' dictionaries you are neither advancing your argument nor helping the user. This isn't a show of manliness or some clever way to show why your favorite distribution is the best; this is trying to help a new user get into a free and open computing experience. Let's try to be nice and welcoming so we don't scare off all the new users.


So there you have it: How not to scare off new users. Try to put yourself in their shoes. Try to remember back when when you were new, mention the things that helped you. Feel free to move along. There are plenty of other people on the Internet I'm sure someone get the job done. If it insults the user, the distribution in question or the program the user is using, or could be offensive to the user it probably doesn't need to be said.