Re: my last two cents on how questions should be handled

[Larry Greenleaf <haydes007@xxxxxxxxx>]

Some of you seem to forget that you were new to Linux once. Maybe the people who posted here did "RTFM" and did not understand it. Lets be real, some of these man pages are cryptic at best. We have to remember that what might be "facile" to us may not be to the person asking for help. Lets just try to point these people in the right direction instead of flaming them on this list and encouraging more counterproductive posts. Better yet, why not answer their question off-list. If you help them, you may learn something you did not know as well. It's a win-win situation!

 Matt Fahrner <Matt.Fahrner@coat.com> wrote:

I can't argue with your points except to say I think there are times
it is appropriate to say (nicely) RTFM. You aren't really helping
anyone if you answer a question that clearly is so facile that the
user could have *quickly* looked it up themselves. Looking it up is
often more helpful to the learning process than actually being given
the answer.

There is a large difference between the question:

What is the option to RPM to get the list of files in an RPM?

versus:

When doing a build of an RPM I can't seem to figure
out why my scriptlets aren't getting pulled in correctly,
is there a way to debug this?

One shows clear lazyness, the other an honest lack of knowledge.

Right now it doesn't matter if there are a few lazy questions, but if
the use goes up, these won't seem quite so benign. Again, I'm
suggesting that t! his be done *nicely*.

I admit I do find it a little frustrating when someone gives a short
question like:

I linked my C program and it core dumped. Why?

It really seems as if they want you to do their work for them...

- Matt

wo shi ni baba wrote:
> In my opinion, no stupid&useless&flamy satires should be directed to a
> question no matter how naive the question is. Give me a break, we all
> started from a beginner some point in our lives.
>
> If you ever think that you are too professional to answer a stupid
> question, then shut up and let other people answer it, why even bother
> to waste your valuable time to send some satires to the person(unless
> you are really bored and have nothing better to do???)
>
> Here's what I think how questions should be handled:
>
> 1.In the case the question is posted to the wrong forum, politely direct
> th! e inquirer to the correct forum.
>
> 2.In the c! ase the question lacks a title, politely tells the person that
> he/she should put an appropriate title next time.
>
> 3. in the case the question seems ambiguous, try your best to figure out
> what the person is asking, or ask the person to rephrase. Do not through
> any stupid comments out.
>
> I have to restate something I said again for all of you comrades:
>
> Don't make us techines/software engineers look $bad$ than it ALREADY
> seems. BE OPEN AND HELPFUL to other people, especially the people who
> are not technical enough. After all, if he/she is professional enough to
> read the manuals, he/she can solve all the problems in theory, why do we
> need a forum then?
>
> -jonathan
>
>
>
>
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--

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Larry Greenleaf

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