Last but not the least advocacy is a part of the culture and not the only motive of this group. We are not missionaries trying to spread any kind of religion but trying to have fun and help others in this process.
I would say that all of us have gained something from the community. in terms of skills, in terms of technical help, in terms of software that we can use - "freely"
I have a feeling that we have to give something back to the community. i am incapable of giving it back in terms of code, thus i give it back by spreading the word across. Thus for me, I have a specific goal wrt. FLOSS ie. increase the user base.
I feel obliged to be newbie friendly thus. others may have a different opinion, with due respects...
Since we clearly have two catagories of people regardign their opinion about being newbie friendly, why dont we have two seprate lists.
1. the newbie lists - the person who joins this list is expected to be tolerant enuff to entertain all types of stupid sounding questions form newbies. this shall be a lil less strict.
2. the general list - this list is used as a regular collaboration medium for the gnu/linux community in and around bombay.
This way the posting of theselists can come to two diff folders in your inbox, and u can assign a time of the day(say15 mins in a good mood) to answering newbies. whereas your regular collaboration with your gnu/linux mates stays undisturbed from the crap of a few newbies.
whats say? gurpreet ------------------------------------ GNUrpreet Singh MPIT 1 (Nw specialization) Symbiosis Center for IT www.scit.edu