From: rshepard@salmo.appl-ecosys.com
On 2004-08-17, John Williams wrote:
> Yup, it's as friendly as a impacted wisdom tooth, and just as useful...
This, John, is mild. Try asking a question that indicates you did nothing
to find the answer yourself on a linux users group mail list. Especially my
local one. Your monitor would melt.
Earl is absolutely correct in his responses. There's nothing wrong with a
newcomer asking for help, but it makes a tremendous difference when the
first message indicates his/her own attempts to find an answer.
For example, if the original article included, "I've searched google using
these terms ... and didn't find anything. Are there better search terms I
could use? What have I missed?", I'm certain that positive help would be
forthcoming.
When I was on university faculty (from which I gratefully escaped two
decades ago) I had a student turn in a course evaluation form with the
comment, "Dr. Shepard does not give good notes." We all had a good chuckle
at this while appreciating how pathetic it was. But, that's the attitude
some of us see in the two-line questions that say, "I want to do this. Tell
me how."
You never see me reply to those. Bill Siler, on the other hand, is a
kinder and gentler person than is Earl or I. Of course, Earl and I make our
livings by selling our knowledge, expertise and experience to solve
real-world problems for clients. That gives us a much different perspective
than that held by those who receive a regular paycheck and work as cogs in a
larger machine.
Write what you have done to solve your own problem. Ask for specific help
or guidance on narrow topics and you'll be guaranteed useful answers.
Rich
--
Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.(TM)
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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