While "Yes" may be a technically accurate answer to a question like "Can I ..." or "Can anyone ...", a couple of points must be acknowledged:
1) Such an answer doesn't help the original poster. Period. And the purpose of a resource like this is to help, right? Even a "RTFM" or "search Google" at least gives the user __something__ to work with (and the lesson there being that if they read the manual or search Google, they'll quickly find answers). If your argument for answering "Yes" is that you're teaching the user to ask questions the smart way, then why not answer their intended question AND refer them to the smart questions page? Do you honestly think people are learning __anything__ when you reply with a "Yes"? Moreover...
I guess you didn't read the 'smart questions page'. It explains in great detail why the user was directed there. It explains what the user should do _before_ posting to a mailing list. It gives the user more than the little STFW 'something'.
2) It's commonplace in human discourse to attempt to address the *intent* of a person's question rather than the literal question itself. If you were helping a friend re-shingle a roof and they said "Can you hand me that hammer?", hopefully you would actually hand them the hammer, not say "Yes". They are many colloquialisms in languages--like when someone says "What's up?"--and it's just obstinate not to recognize them as such and respond accordingly.
Finally, if you don't agree that "Yes" isn't helpful and that it's an inappropriate answer anyway, how about this: such emails are a waste of resources. It's a waste of the time (.1 nanoseconds or whatever) it took you to write. It's a waste of bandwidth (at a few bits a pop). It's a waste of everyone's time in reading and deleting such emails (another second). And it tends to start a sequence of even longer, off topic threads such as this one.
Kind of like it's a waste of time to psycho analyze members of php mailing list...not that it's off topic or anything.
So, seriously, if you don't feel like helping or you don't believe that a message should be posted here because it's off topic or you don't believe that a question was phrased properly, wouldn't it be better for everyone if you just didn't respond? It'd certainly be easier.
Kind of like it would be better if others didn't fan the flames with posts on how the bad people shouldn't be mean.
Oy vay!
Indeed.
Sorry Jay, guess I've lost Christmas points. ;)
-- John C. Nichel ÜberGeek KegWorks.com 716.856.9675 john@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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