[EDIT] I just want to emphasise on important role of the FreeBSD forums. I don't have any statistics, but I think this forum to FreeBSD project is as arch wiki to Arch linux. Compare it to something like Microsoft or Ubuntu forums. Some people will say Meh, it's just a forums. But I thinks it is as important as handbook. That was my thoughts and I happy I receive some feedback, I appreciate it.
Meh, it is just a forum.
There were times when we had Usenet. But FreeBSD never wanted to participate in Usenet - instead one was pointed to the mailing list. Which is not a problem, because technically a mailing list can work the same as a Usenet group. But mailing lists were more formal, one had to formally apply to participate, and they were a bit outside of that kinda special Usenet mentality.
But then, the people who brought me my first FreeBSD image were real people, and we met every week at my place, and we were a real usergroup. And this is how problems were solved at that time. But therefore one has to acknowledge that there are other people, and one does not want to do that anymore today. When you look at the discussions here, you find sharing of knowledge, you find interest in figuring out about the problems of others, you find engagement in consulting and giving good advice - but you do not find any sign of interest in the fact that at the other end is a human being. Any participant here might die at any moment, and nobody would ever notice.
People do not want this any more. People do not want to acknowledge that there are other humans. People do not want user groups where they would meet each other and would have to recognize, the other is a human.
With e-mail this was still different - it was known that e-mail is only a rudimentary form of communication, and one would usually after some worthwile of mail exchange, try to arrange to really meet on some occasion. Now, it would seem forums are no less rudimentary communication, as it's still only plain letters - but now a bit more than just ASCII, it has icons and colours and some smileyfaces - giving an illusion of sensual perception. And that seems to suffice.
With the e-mails some other thing occasionally happened. You mithg get into a correspondence with somebody, not bout technical matters, but rather worldview, philosophy or such. And it might happen, you found something to share, and that correnspondence get lengthy, and suddenly you would exchange 30 or 40 kB big mails, pure ASCII. This does not happen in forums, at least not easily. But why?
Wehn you read a text email the old way, where you delibaretly hit on that message and open a reader, you will be entirely focused on that single message - and there will be no windows and icons and colours around signaling whatever. And then the mind recognizes that there is a person who wrote that mail - but there is just ASCII, and no sensory input at all. The mind expects sensory input, it utterly needs the input from gestures, timbre, talking speed and all these sensory nuances in order to properly understand a message - but the mind cannot get to that input.
And then, if you stay focused to the matter, something will happen; and that is well known in asian meditation techniques where they did experiment on sensory deprivation: being unable to connect to the
external source of sensory input, the mind will finally break through and consciousely connect to the
internal source of input, the collective unconscious. This then is certainly X-files, eh, PSI - but then, it doesn't happen anymore, anyway, because with forums there is so much colors and things, you dont get in sensory deprivation even if staying focused - and few people will stay focused for more than 10 seconds, not to mention an hour or so - and they need their time more urgently for caring about being against each other, due to language or similiar reasons.
...what happen to you? , including mjollnir ,I newer have a problem with any of the users here related to my country
