Adopt-a-newbie? Based on actual experience

[Aur_Saraf]

Well, until further notice (and please read this thread to the end to check
that further notice wasn't issued), I will coordinate this personally.

Any newbie who thinks he would benefit from such tutorship should mail me
and will probably get ME as a tutor.

If I'm too swamped I'll ask Logan, and anyone else who volunteers, to take
some new ones (and redirect them by email).

Just a very temporary solution.

Aur Saraf

···

On 2/14/07, SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, to potential adoptees we can only offer the service...

But I think many would gladly accept.

Aur Saraf

On 2/14/07, Logan Capaldo <logancapaldo@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Feb 15, 2007 at 05:03:16AM +0900, SonOfLilit wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > Remember Samantha? She dropped by the list a while ago and was given
the
> > idea to develop a Rails resume generator...
> >
> > Anyway, yesterday she happened to email me about the Haifa RUG post
> (only
> > reply this far and it was a false ) and I happened to remember her
> > project and give her a bit of advice, and it developed into a
> conversation
> > reminding a bit of a chat about her project, that seems to have pulled
> her
> > out of a stuck position (I hope).
> >
> > Well, she told me she's glad she can email me those questions since
> sending
> > them to the list would be overkill and uncomfortable...
> >
> > Now, remember the recent discussion about newbie questions plaguing
the
> > list?
> >
> > All of this has brought me to think of an Adopt-a-newbie model.
Somehow,
> > every newbie that wants would get an email address of a volunteer from
> > ruby-talk, with whom he can correspond personally and who will answer
> his
> > basic questions and serve to also encourage him to keep learning.
> >
> > I could manage two-three active newbies at a time, I think, and they
> would
> > greatly benefit from it if they are anything like me.
> >
> > What do you think? Would you consider it a good idea? Would you
> volunteer?
> > Is anyone up for infrastructure (preferrably on ruby-lang.org, though
> > anywhere is good)?
> >
> I would be interested, but I think it would depend on the adoptee not
> just the adopter. I would not want to end up being the fount of
> knowledge and turn into a crutch for the adopted person.
> >
> > Aur Saraf
>

[Jason_Palmer]

Sign me up!
Anyone who wants to email me with questions feel free.
palmerj3@gmail.com

···

On 2/14/07, SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm currently hand-spamming a few users at ruby-talk that lately started a
thread that I think any of the regulars here could answer easily, about
this
thread.

I hope they don't regard it as what it is - spam - but instead think -
like
me - that it's an opportunity for a more fun and more straightforward
learning experience.

I also hope I'm not insulting anybody by calling them a newbie when it is
undeserved (also I see no harm in this name myself).

Aur Saraf

[Aur_Saraf]

As a newb wishing to be helped, please email me directly. That would take
load off the list.

I still prefer volunteers to post on-list so we can see the scale of this.

Aur Saraf

···

On 2/15/07, barjunk <barjunk@attglobal.net> wrote:

On Feb 14, 12:54 pm, "Pat Maddox" <perg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/14/07, SonOfLilit <sonofli...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > All of this has brought me to think of an Adopt-a-newbie model.
Somehow,
> > every newbie that wants would get an email address of a volunteer from
> > ruby-talk, with whom he can correspond personally and who will answer
his
> > basic questions and serve to also encourage him to keep learning.
>
> OOH! I want a newbie!!
>
> Seriously, this sounds pretty cool. I'm lucky enough to write Ruby
> all day long for my day job, and I could probably help some other
> people out quite a bit I think.
>
> Pat

I'm a newbie willing to be beaten ....ahh....helped by a more
experienced user.

I'd also willing provide time to a super brand new person wanting
install help and ruby basics.

What do we do next?

James' idea about moving this offlist has merit.

Mike B.

[Jim_Clark]

I would be interested, but I think it would depend on the adoptee not
just the adopter. I would not want to end up being the fount of
knowledge and turn into a crutch for the adopted person.
>
> Aur Saraf

As far as the adoptee taking undue advantage of the adopter's time and willingness to help, I've been on teams where we use Social Contracts to outline expectations and responsibilities from the start. This provides a good framework for resolving clashes. For instance, if the adopter can devote 2 hours per week yet the adoptee is asking eight detailed questions per day, the Social Contract can be used to remind both sides of the match to what they have agreed to.

Doing a quick search on Google for mentoring agreements, I found a simple one at: https://www-personnel.salford.ac.uk/docs/Code%20of%20Practice%20on%20Mentoring.doc where Appendix I was a simple example agreement, Appendix II was 'Periodic Mentoring Partnership Review' and Appendix III was 'Monitoring and Evaluating the mentoring relationship'. Perhaps this is overkill and people would prefer much more informal arrangements (if any) but I still think it is a good idea to synchronize the adopter and adoptee's expectations early on. I would hate to see the fallout of a bad match overshadow the success of the remaining ones.

Regards,
Jim

[Vincent_Fourmond]

SonOfLilit wrote:

Of course, interesting discussions should still go to ruby-talk. And if I'm
predicting correctly, this will spawn MANY interesting discussions (as that
is what cognitive resonance does).

  That would be good. Let's give it some time to see the outcome !

  Cheers,

  Vincent

PS: for the infrastructure, why not create a rubyforge project and setup
a wiki over there ? That should scale up to a reasonable size.

···

--
Vincent Fourmond, PhD student (not for long anymore)
http://vincent.fourmond.neuf.fr/

[Steven_R]

barjunk wrote:

All of this has brought me to think of an Adopt-a-newbie model. Somehow,
every newbie that wants would get an email address of a volunteer from
ruby-talk, with whom he can correspond personally and who will answer his
basic questions and serve to also encourage him to keep learning.

OOH! I want a newbie!!

Seriously, this sounds pretty cool. I'm lucky enough to write Ruby
all day long for my day job, and I could probably help some other
people out quite a bit I think.

Pat

I'm a newbie willing to be beaten ....ahh....helped by a more
experienced user.

I'd also willing provide time to a super brand new person wanting
install help and ruby basics.

What do we do next?

James' idea about moving this offlist has merit.

Mike B.

I am in - as a Newbie and to help answer questions from new-er-bies.

I am the organizer of the Chicago Area Ruby Meetup - if y'all join (it's free for you) you have access to forums, etc. It is not seeing much traffic right now (user traffic - there are no ads, and I make $0 from it - in fact, I pay to keep it).

Here's the link - join and email. I'll do whatever I can, within the limited functionality of Meetup.com, to help coordinate.

Steve R.

http://ruby.meetup.com/77/about/

PS - I realize most of you are nowhere near me, so you'd be unlikely to attend the meetings, but it would be cool to have people in Lebanon, Nigeria, Germany, Australia, wherever as members...

···

On Feb 14, 12:54 pm, "Pat Maddox" <perg...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 2/14/07, SonOfLilit <sonofli...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Olivier]

Ok.
I speak french, and I live near Paris. I would be more comfortable helping
someone whose native language is french. But, as Greg suggests, it may be a
way to improve my english a bit, to help an english-speaking person.
Actually, I fear more for the pupil than for me, if my english explanations
confuse him more than it helps !

···

On 2/15/07, Olivier <o.renaud@laposte.net> wrote:
> I think this is a great idea ! I can't wait for being adopted by Matz ^^
>
> Seriously, I'm interrested in trying the experience of adopting a newbie,
> but
> I'm not sure if my explanations would be clear enough, as my english is
> somewhat poor. However, as it is a 1 to 1 relationship, it would be
> logical
> to take into account the prefered language(s) of the adopter and the
> adoptee.
> Did you already think about that ?
>
> --
> Olivier Renaud

Well, since for now it's coordinated here and by email, just tell me where
you are from and what languages you speak

This goes to anyone else.

Aur Saraf

--
Olivier Renaud

[Aur_Saraf]

I think emailing her off-list would be more proper

···

On 2/15/07, William Smith <wbsmith83@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey I saw on the adopt a geek thread you were creating a resume generator.
I
was looking at doing the same thing. How is it coming?

On 2/14/07, Samantha <rubygeekgirl@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 2/14/07, SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > Remember Samantha? She dropped by the list a while ago and was given
the
> > idea to develop a Rails resume generator...
> >
> > Anyway, yesterday she happened to email me about the Haifa RUG post
> (only
> > reply this far and it was a false ) and I happened to remember her
> > project and give her a bit of advice, and it developed into a
> conversation
> > reminding a bit of a chat about her project, that seems to have pulled
> her
> > out of a stuck position (I hope).
> >
> > Well, she told me she's glad she can email me those questions since
> > sending
> > them to the list would be overkill and uncomfortable...
> >
> > Now, remember the recent discussion about newbie questions plaguing
the
> > list?
> >
> > All of this has brought me to think of an Adopt-a-newbie model.
Somehow,
> > every newbie that wants would get an email address of a volunteer from
> > ruby-talk, with whom he can correspond personally and who will answer
> his
> > basic questions and serve to also encourage him to keep learning.
> >
> > I could manage two-three active newbies at a time, I think, and they
> would
> > greatly benefit from it if they are anything like me.
> >
> > What do you think? Would you consider it a good idea? Would you
> volunteer?
> > Is anyone up for infrastructure (preferrably on ruby-lang.org, though
> > anywhere is good)?
> >
> > Aur Saraf
> >
>
> As a newbie, I think that would be awesome. I've emailed off-list with
> two
> people so far, and the help has been tremendous. I think that it's an
> awesome idea. Personally, I don't like putting stuff out there and
> possibly
> sounding like a moron so, I get shy asking specific questions when I
> know
> that so many people are out there on the list. It's a bit intimidating.
>
> So, you get my newbie-vote.
>
> --
> Samantha
>
> http://www.babygeek.org/
>
> "Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all
> things are at risk."
> --Ralph Waldo Emerson
>

[Edwin_Fine]

First, *my* definition of "newbie" just for this post:

A person who is generally inexperienced in computer programming, and
specifically inexperienced in Ruby programming.

Therefore, when mentioning newbies in this post, I do not refer to
people who are already adept at programming in another language but just
don't know Ruby. I believe most of such people would not hesitate to
post to a forum, and would not really want or need a mentor. They would
also hopefully know how to ask questions in a clear way.

I mentor developers as part of my job. Based on experience, I would say
that newbies as defined above should execute the following algorithm
(which contains polite versions of RTFM and STFW) to get maximum benefit
from a mentor:

newbie.read_the_manual or
newbie.search_the_web or
newbie.read_ruby_books or
newbie.ask_mentor or
newbie.post_to_ruby_forum # Last resort

It is unfortunately not rare to encounter people who will not exhaust
all other self-help possibilities before asking others for help. I will
not opine on why this is so. However, IMHO, help is given freely and
happily when the helpee has demonstrated sufficient gumption, and
consideration for other people's time, to try to find the solution using
the above algorithm.

Newbies should, in their email or forum post, clearly describe the
problem, and explain what they did, prior to asking for help, to solve
the problem. This will give the ones who are being asked the question
enough information to reduce or eliminate the need to ask the newbie
follow-up questions before being able to answer.

Although some people find the content at the following link to be
objectionable and rude, it does cut to the heart of the matter and is
worthwhile reading for all newbies:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

If they agree to adhere to the above conduct, I will volunteer to take
on a couple of newbies. This is dependent on time and workload, so
patience is a virtue; I may not be able to answer instantly. It does not
mean I am ignoring you.

My background is that I have been developing software for an
embarrassingly long time, mostly in C++ and Java, on various platforms.
I use Ruby on a daily basis to automate Linux- and Unix-based tasks such
as performance monitoring, graphing, data analysis, and as a replacement
for shell scripting when possible. I provided some Ruby extension code
for the ruby-informix and RubyWMQ projects. I also use Ruby at home on
Ubuntu Edgy x86_64; the last significant thing I did was reorganize my
MP3 collection's directory structure by artist and album, using the ID3
tags. I have been using Ruby for about 18 months, so IANARG (I am not a
Ruby Guru), but I have pretty much read all the books and manuals and
written a fair amount of stuff. I am a systems-type developer, so GUI
questions are not a great idea. I also don't know Rails (yet).

Finally, I don't think it is a good idea to post email addresses and
personal contact details on this or any forum. I would suggest using the
email links provided by this forum to contact me with your details.

Best regards,
Edwin Fine

···

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

[Aur_Saraf]

Hello.

I agree totally - this is my favorite way of learning/teaching.

Unfortunately, in my experience, such groups are very hard to keep together.

If a group like this would be formed, I'd enjoy helping it very much,
and I'm pretty sure I can get someone who's more of an expert to take
up the project.

In the meantime - each to his own. But one of the mentors, for
example, set a ML for his to students. That's a step in the way there.

Aur

···

On 2/19/07, Mark Woodward <markonlinux@internode.on.net> wrote:

I've often thought about this but in a slightly different way.

As a newbie I think this is a great idea and I'd certainly be interested
in being mentored, but I'll throw my ideas in here anyway. I guess my
ideas are not for newbies on the first rung of the ladder, but a rung or 2
higher.

1. Last year at Uni I was part of a 4 student team given the task of
creating a project for a 'customer'. It was web based and used PHP and
none of us had any real experience with PHP. But by the end of the year
we'd learnt a lot. So, couldn't 4-5 newbies here start an open source
project using Ruby? Perhaps with a Mentor overlooking the project? This
would not only develop Ruby skills but requirements, teamwork, project
management etc. I've thought about joining a 'real' Ruby project but would
feel like a preschooler going to University. This way we'd all be
preschoolers under the guidance of the Mentor.

2. Have some (progressively harder) newbie quizzes on RubyQuiz. ie have a
series of quizzes that brings the (semi) newbie up to the level of the
quizzes that are there now.

3. I remember a while ago, although I can't remember the site, someone was
organising a series of 'on-line lectures' from the 'Rute User's Tutorial
and Exposition'. Something along the lines of:
"In 3 weeks time we're going to start studying each chapter over the
course of a week. During the first week we'll study 'Computing Sub-basics'
the second week 'Basic Commands', wk7 'Shell Scripting' etc
Again, could a small group of newbies under the watchful eye of a Mentor
do a similar thing with the 'Pickaxe' for eg?

cheers,

--
Mark

[Chad_Perrin1 (Chad Perrin)]

2. Have some (progressively harder) newbie quizzes on RubyQuiz. ie have a
series of quizzes that brings the (semi) newbie up to the level of the
quizzes that are there now.

I'd love to see something like that happen. My first brush with
RubyQuiz was frustrating because I wasn't anywhere near familiar enough
with the language to make heads or tails of the quizzes -- despite the
fact that a bunch of quizzes would be an excellent way to build skill
quickly for a newbie.

3. I remember a while ago, although I can't remember the site, someone was
organising a series of 'on-line lectures' from the 'Rute User's Tutorial
and Exposition'. Something along the lines of:
"In 3 weeks time we're going to start studying each chapter over the
course of a week. During the first week we'll study 'Computing Sub-basics'
the second week 'Basic Commands', wk7 'Shell Scripting' etc
Again, could a small group of newbies under the watchful eye of a Mentor
do a similar thing with the 'Pickaxe' for eg?

That's . . . almost ironic. I rejoined the ruby-talk list today after a
long hiatus (it's too high-traffic for me to stay subscribed for more
than a few months at a time) specifically because I started putting
something similar together. The idea, however, is not to organize Ruby
newbie groups, but to get a bunch of people interested in programming
languages and similar subjects to benefit from a sort of synergistic
community learning environment for one subject after another. The first
such learning project for this putative study group will be the Ruby
programming language, using one of the several excellent online Ruby
books. Next . . . probably some other programming language, depending
on what the participants in general want to do. We might hit Rails or
another Ruby book, though, for all I know.

I think a "study group" model is one of the most effective means of
learning, when people are actually interested in the subject matter.
While mentors are nice, I don't think they're really necessary -- with a
small group of interested people working together and using each other
as resources, the group becomes the "mentor". This helps keep the
learning process honest (nobody's going to be able to really use a
mentor as a crutch when the "mentor" is a bunch of similarly skilled
people who will also be seeking that person's help), and ensures that
people can come to someone when stuck without feeling like he or she is
imposing on an expert with better things to do. Rather than feeling
impeded by an authority-figure relationship, peers can interact and
figure things out together. That's the theory, anyway.

As such, it occurs to me that maybe what's needed is merely a study
group connection service of some kind, not a formal mentoring program.
Mentoring, I think, would be a far more appropriate system for
professional training than enthusiast autodidactic efforts (which means
that mentoring should be going on in the workplace, and study groups at
home or in coffee shops or online, or whatever).

At least, that's how it seems to me. I'll let you all know how well it
works for the group I've decided to draw together, and how much
mentoring I end up doing with them. (I'm sorta like a re-virgin here,
since I hadn't used Ruby enough for it to really sink in long-term
before setting it aside to do other things that needed doing -- so I'm
in the odd position of being both newbie and old hand at the same time.)
This could either prove me right or very, very wrong, by the time this
first study group project is done.

By the way . . . I also think that some familiarity between members of
such a group before it gets started is important. Otherwise, one might
as well just learn on one's own and ask questions on a mailing list.
The problems that arise there with ruby-talk are the main reason people
show up every few months asking if there's a newbie list (or, at least,
they did so the last two or three times I was subscribed -- and I doubt
that has changed in the interim), I think.

···

On Mon, Feb 19, 2007 at 08:25:11PM +0900, Mark Woodward wrote:

--
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
This sig for rent: a Signify v1.14 production from http://www.debian.org/

[James_Edward_Gray_II]

suggestion@rubyquiz.com

James Edward Gray II

···

On Feb 19, 2007, at 5:25 AM, Mark Woodward wrote:

2. Have some (progressively harder) newbie quizzes on RubyQuiz. ie have a
series of quizzes that brings the (semi) newbie up to the level of the
quizzes that are there now.

[Han_Dao]

Well, it sound like apprenticeship or something like a pupil to a teacher.

I guess mentors have the responsibility of being patient and newbies have
the responsibility of being eager to learn.

···

On 2/14/07, SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, until further notice (and please read this thread to the end to
check
that further notice wasn't issued), I will coordinate this personally.

Any newbie who thinks he would benefit from such tutorship should mail me
and will probably get ME as a tutor.

If I'm too swamped I'll ask Logan, and anyone else who volunteers, to take
some new ones (and redirect them by email).

Just a very temporary solution.

Aur Saraf

On 2/14/07, SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Well, to potential adoptees we can only offer the service...
>
> But I think many would gladly accept.
>
> Aur Saraf
>
> On 2/14/07, Logan Capaldo <logancapaldo@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 15, 2007 at 05:03:16AM +0900, SonOfLilit wrote:
> > > Hello all,
> > >
> > > Remember Samantha? She dropped by the list a while ago and was given
> the
> > > idea to develop a Rails resume generator...
> > >
> > > Anyway, yesterday she happened to email me about the Haifa RUG post
> > (only
> > > reply this far and it was a false ) and I happened to remember
her
> > > project and give her a bit of advice, and it developed into a
> > conversation
> > > reminding a bit of a chat about her project, that seems to have
pulled
> > her
> > > out of a stuck position (I hope).
> > >
> > > Well, she told me she's glad she can email me those questions since
> > sending
> > > them to the list would be overkill and uncomfortable...
> > >
> > > Now, remember the recent discussion about newbie questions plaguing
> the
> > > list?
> > >
> > > All of this has brought me to think of an Adopt-a-newbie model.
> Somehow,
> > > every newbie that wants would get an email address of a volunteer
from
> > > ruby-talk, with whom he can correspond personally and who will
answer
> > his
> > > basic questions and serve to also encourage him to keep learning.
> > >
> > > I could manage two-three active newbies at a time, I think, and they
> > would
> > > greatly benefit from it if they are anything like me.
> > >
> > > What do you think? Would you consider it a good idea? Would you
> > volunteer?
> > > Is anyone up for infrastructure (preferrably on ruby-lang.org,
though
> > > anywhere is good)?
> > >
> > I would be interested, but I think it would depend on the adoptee not
> > just the adopter. I would not want to end up being the fount of
> > knowledge and turn into a crutch for the adopted person.
> > >
> > > Aur Saraf
> >
>

[Peter_Szinek3 (Peter Szinek)]

SonOfLilit wrote:

Well, until further notice (and please read this thread to the end to check
that further notice wasn't issued), I will coordinate this personally.

Any newbie who thinks he would benefit from such tutorship should mail me
and will probably get ME as a tutor.

If I'm too swamped I'll ask Logan, and anyone else who volunteers, to take
some new ones (and redirect them by email).

I think this is a fabulous idea.

OK, I am also in if Logan will get swamped, too I am far from being a Ruby pro myself, but I guess I know enough (and still learning everyday) to show the way to newbies...
I have learned a lot by answering some simple to semi-advanced questions on the ML so I guess to have a 'personal newbie' could help a lot (because of similar reasons)

We (the adopters) could maybe even share our experience and pull out the most frequently asked questions and compile them into a 'newbie kickoff FAQ' or something.

Cheers,
Peter

···

__
http://www.rubyrailways.com :: Ruby and Web2.0 blog
http://scrubyt.org :: Ruby web scraping framework
http://rubykitchensink.ca/ :: The indexed archive of all things Ruby.

[Aur_Saraf]

This seems like psychological overkill to me - it would scare the hell out
of newbies if they are anything like me.

I think the mentor should just know that he may always say "listen, this is
too much for me, please find someone else who has more time" and it's
totally OK.

About Vincent's wiki suggestion, yes, that could work, only:

1) I don't have time to setup infrastructure.
2) The infrastructure I'd really want to exist is some form of recording and
public display of all willing mentoring sessions. Perhaps an email address
that both sides are asked to CC conversations they don't mind sharing to (or
a gateway between the sides) and a nice website allowing anyone to browse
the conversations.

That would make a GREAT learning resource.

What'd be even better is to provide recorded chatrooms for whomever wills to
use them. Perhaps 37signals' chat system would do? Is it manageable with it
in a free way?

Aur Saraf

I'd be really thankful if someone else takes up infrastructure management,
as I really can't ATM.

···

On 2/15/07, Jim Clark <diegoslice@gmail.com> wrote:

>> I would be interested, but I think it would depend on the adoptee not
>> just the adopter. I would not want to end up being the fount of
>> knowledge and turn into a crutch for the adopted person.
>> >
>> > Aur Saraf
As far as the adoptee taking undue advantage of the adopter's time and
willingness to help, I've been on teams where we use Social Contracts to
outline expectations and responsibilities from the start. This provides
a good framework for resolving clashes. For instance, if the adopter can
devote 2 hours per week yet the adoptee is asking eight detailed
questions per day, the Social Contract can be used to remind both sides
of the match to what they have agreed to.

Doing a quick search on Google for mentoring agreements, I found a
simple one at:

https://www-personnel.salford.ac.uk/docs/Code%20of%20Practice%20on%20Mentoring.doc
where Appendix I was a simple example agreement, Appendix II was
'Periodic Mentoring Partnership Review' and Appendix III was 'Monitoring
and Evaluating the mentoring relationship'. Perhaps this is overkill and
people would prefer much more informal arrangements (if any) but I still
think it is a good idea to synchronize the adopter and adoptee's
expectations early on. I would hate to see the fallout of a bad match
overshadow the success of the remaining ones.

Regards,
Jim

[Pat_Maddox1 (Pat Maddox)]

I hate the idea of a "social contract."

The obvious solution is mentor refactoring:

red: newbie asks question
green: mentor answers question
refactor: each person asks if they like the other guy, find someone
else if they don't

Simple, low stress, low obligation, no hard feelings

The whole point of this is to make it easy and comfortable to learn
the basics of Ruby. Contracts? Yuck!

Pat

p.s. I didn't read the contract, so I have no clue what it looks like.
But I can just about guarantee you that anything called a contract
and delivered in .doc is of no interest to me

···

On 2/14/07, Jim Clark <diegoslice@gmail.com> wrote:

As far as the adoptee taking undue advantage of the adopter's time and
willingness to help, I've been on teams where we use Social Contracts to
outline expectations and responsibilities from the start.

[Samantha]

http://www.rubynewbie.org is available. Once I have gainful employment, I'm
willing to buy the domain and put it to work for this purpose.

···

On 2/14/07, Steven R. <steverummel@comcast.net> wrote:

I am in - as a Newbie and to help answer questions from new-er-bies.

I am the organizer of the Chicago Area Ruby Meetup - if y'all join (it's
free for you) you have access to forums, etc. It is not seeing much
traffic right now (user traffic - there are no ads, and I make $0 from
it - in fact, I pay to keep it).

Here's the link - join and email. I'll do whatever I can, within the
limited functionality of Meetup.com, to help coordinate.

Steve R.

http://ruby.meetup.com/77/about/

PS - I realize most of you are nowhere near me, so you'd be unlikely to
attend the meetings, but it would be cool to have people in Lebanon,
Nigeria, Germany, Australia, wherever as members...

--
Samantha

http://www.babygeek.org/

"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all
things are at risk."
  --Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Olivier]

SonOfLilit wrote :

Oh, by the way, in the future, could volunteers list their topics of
interest in short? Not a long exact enumeration, [...]

I can help more specifically with Gtk, OpenGL and algorithmic.

···

--
Olivier Renaud

[William_Smith]

Grr. Thats what I meant to do. Stupid non-mind reading computer.

···

On 2/15/07, SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@gmail.com> wrote:

I think emailing her off-list would be more proper

On 2/15/07, William Smith <wbsmith83@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hey I saw on the adopt a geek thread you were creating a resume
generator.
> I
> was looking at doing the same thing. How is it coming?
>
> On 2/14/07, Samantha <rubygeekgirl@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 2/14/07, SonOfLilit <sonoflilit@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hello all,
> > >
> > > Remember Samantha? She dropped by the list a while ago and was given
> the
> > > idea to develop a Rails resume generator...
> > >
> > > Anyway, yesterday she happened to email me about the Haifa RUG post
> > (only
> > > reply this far and it was a false ) and I happened to remember
her
> > > project and give her a bit of advice, and it developed into a
> > conversation
> > > reminding a bit of a chat about her project, that seems to have
pulled
> > her
> > > out of a stuck position (I hope).
> > >
> > > Well, she told me she's glad she can email me those questions since
> > > sending
> > > them to the list would be overkill and uncomfortable...
> > >
> > > Now, remember the recent discussion about newbie questions plaguing
> the
> > > list?
> > >
> > > All of this has brought me to think of an Adopt-a-newbie model.
> Somehow,
> > > every newbie that wants would get an email address of a volunteer
from
> > > ruby-talk, with whom he can correspond personally and who will
answer
> > his
> > > basic questions and serve to also encourage him to keep learning.
> > >
> > > I could manage two-three active newbies at a time, I think, and they
> > would
> > > greatly benefit from it if they are anything like me.
> > >
> > > What do you think? Would you consider it a good idea? Would you
> > volunteer?
> > > Is anyone up for infrastructure (preferrably on ruby-lang.org,
though
> > > anywhere is good)?
> > >
> > > Aur Saraf
> > >
> >
> > As a newbie, I think that would be awesome. I've emailed off-list
with
> > two
> > people so far, and the help has been tremendous. I think that it's an
> > awesome idea. Personally, I don't like putting stuff out there and
> > possibly
> > sounding like a moron so, I get shy asking specific questions when
I
> > know
> > that so many people are out there on the list. It's a bit
intimidating.
> >
> > So, you get my newbie-vote.
> >
> > --
> > Samantha
> >
> > http://www.babygeek.org/
> >
> > "Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then
all
> > things are at risk."
> > --Ralph Waldo Emerson
> >
>

[Aur_Saraf]

Since I've been asked a lot, a few guidelines for mentors:

* When you receive an email asking if you're OK hooking up with a newbie,
you're just expected to wait until he asks something.
* It would be more advantageous, though, if you do send him an introductory
email and try and get to know him, his code and his purposes in learning
Ruby. From there you can spawn a discussion on the design of his code,
offering him better ways to do things.
* As important as it is to teach Ruby, it is important to teach both good
practices (from indentation through irb to testing) and how to find
information in the Ruby world (how to use documentation, when to ask on ml,
what's on rubyforge...)
* Don't just spill information. Wait for it to be exactly relevant.
* Think of this whole things like a discussion in a computer lab where the
programmer next to you asks you a question in a field you're better at...
The sort of discussion that also happens a lot at conferences.

Aur Saraf

if anyone has a good tip to add, feel free!