this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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I've tried to figure some of this stuff out but I really don't know what I'm doing. Most documentation is written with a vocabulary I don't understand. Tutorials assume a high-level understanding of coding, software, CLI and a bunch of other stuff.

So far I've got an old gaming PC with a R7 2700x + 2060 Super and I think maybe it's overkill. I've got TrueNAS running on it but that's about as far as I got...

Thinking maybe we can have an open Jitsi meeting and just anyone who needs help can get it (myself included 🙂)?

Would anyone be interested in something like that?


E: some people have imagined up some things that I said so let me be clear about what I did not say:

At no time did I insist, beg, or demand that anyone help me.

I did NOT ask anyone to help with a specific issue, nor should I be required to.

I asked if anyone would be willing to help myself and possibly others to get some services running, and I asked to do it in a videoconference setting where we can have a discussion and where you can see what I'm doing as I'm doing it, out of respect for both of our time.

If you are not interested, you do not need to come in here and announce it, and you sure as shit do not need to speak for anyone else on whether they will want to. Just keep scrolling.

E2: special thanks to those who actually reached out and offered to help!

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Point 1. If you're asking someone to donate their time to help you, don't be surprised if they have a few questions first. Wanting to know more about the exact nature of your problem is a good start to figuring out, for example, if they're even the right person to assist you.

It doesn't do you any favours to insist that someone commit to teaching a class over video chat without even being willing to go so far as to give them a syllabus first.

Point 2. When begging for a free ride, don't complain that the car didn't come with seat warmers. If you're going to insist on dictating the manner in which people help you, the result is just going to be that people don't want to help you.

For instance, after posting my first comment, I actually considered offering to PM or chat on Discord so that we could sort out your problem together. I have since reconsidered; this is, in fact, exactly why people who know how to do this stuff usually aren't super jazzed about the idea of an open jitsi meeting or similar. You're going to end up dealing with far too many people who feel entitled to make demands of your time.

I actually like helping people learn about computers. Part of my job involves teaching IT skills, and I genuinely enjoy it. Under the right circumstances, I would be exactly the kind of person you're looking for. And I genuinely do appreciate your frustration; self-hosting is a mess of bad documentation and incomplete guides full of jargon, poorly explained ideas and assumptions of prior knowledge.

But looking at your behaviour throughout this thread, I don't think you're ready to be a student. You've been nothing but combative and demanding, while showing absolutely no appreciation for the time that people are taking to try to help you. It's a bad look, and it just reinforces exactly why people generally prefer to do this stuff at a remove, if at all.