[Asterisk-Users] New to asterisk? RUN... don't walk.

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

> As a newcomer to Asterisk, you will not be welcomed
> with open arms.  First, you will find almost no
> documentation on it's features.  Second, if you try to
> ask questions, you will be flamed and pointed to
> worthless how-tos and 'the wiki'.  These worthless
> documents can only be useful for explaining how things
> work to those already in-the-know.  Lastly, Asterisk
> is so bug ridden, expect frequent segmentation faults.
>  With a community so 'anti-n00b', don't expect your
> problems to be fixed anytime soon.

Wow... I think this is our first troll...  Not much of one at that, either.

For the sake of the archives, newbies should be looking in the following 
areas:
1. the handbook.  www.asterisk.org/index.php?menu=support.  It's down under 
the google logo.
2. there are TONS of other resources on that page.  Use them.
3. IRC (also mentioned on that page): irc.freenode.net, #asterisk
4. this mailing list's ARCHIVES. 
http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/  you can search the 
archives by using google and including "site:lists.digium.com" in your 
search.

The reason many of us here seem newbie-hostile is because we answer the SAME 
FREAKING BASIC QUESTIONS OVER AND OVER AND OVER.  Personally I blame 
asterisk.org's webmasters for not cleaning up that hideous documentation 
page and making it CLEAR where the handbook is and where other very common 
resources are, but nevertheless it gets very tedious to hear the same bitch 
and moans from people who wouldn't lift a finger to solve their own 
problems.

So yes, you in particular, should run from asterisk.  As a general rule no 
open source project tolerates people who refuse to try and help themselves 
first.

Regards,
Andrew