[ale] Insolence of those asking for FREE help on public lists

[Armsby John-G16665]

My experience with posting is that newbies either don't know where to look
for answers or they can not interpret the answers they read in the FAQ.
There seems to be a stair step progression in unix/linux abilities.  People
high up the stair way look down on those coming up. Those coming up see
those "smiling faces" on those above them.  

We should be glad there are a lot of "stupid" questions being asked.  It
means a lot of people are giving unix/linux a try.  When you see a trend in
the kinda questions people ask, you got to ask why they are asking them.  I
believe the trend in questions reflect the lack of appropriate answers being
available to those lower down on the stair steps.  How many times have YOU
ALL posted and gotten a perfectly clear answer which took you a month to
figure it before you realized it was a great answer?  Someone could make
some money by looking at the kinds of questions being answered, writing a
complete chapter on it (for newbies to experts) in a professional manner.
I'd buy a "dummies" book from someone who rewrote the faqs and HowTOs in a
clear concise manner.

John


-----Original Message-----
From: Fletch [mailto:fletch at phydeaux.org]
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2000 2:52 PM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] Insolence of those asking for FREE help on public
lists


>>>>> "John" == John Mills <jmills at tga.com> writes:

    John> [whine about newbieQ's elided]

    John> Thanks for sharing that. Feel better now?

    John> Answering those questions is always _voluntary_, or are you
    John> upset that folks _do_ answer so beginners can become
    John> experienced users. Go back to your paying customers.


        I don't think newbie questions per se are the problem.  I
don't think questions from rude newbies are the problem.  The problem
as I see it is that there seem to be an increasing amount of questions
from newbies that would be solved by one simple thing:


        RTFM.


        There've been a whole lot of very simple questions coming
across the list recently that could have been solved by simply taking
the five minutes necessary to do a quick bit of research.  UNIX
(speaking in general here) comes with gobs of documentation; most open 
source software comes with docmentation; google, altavista, and deja
provide access to even more (mailing lists, newsgroups, etc etc ad
infinitum).  

        It's there for a reason; use it.

        Yes, there will be newbies who don't know vmlinuz from a can
of Turtle Wax.  Yes, they're occasionally going to ask realy simple
questions.  This is the newbie nature.  But realize that seeing
someone ask how to get their 99G drive recognized for the 7.1e10-th
time is kind of annoying.

        If you do answer the unclued, point out *where* the answer
lies as well.  If more newbies get their nose rubbed in RTFM
(politely, of course :), hopefully they won't be newbies for as long
(and there won't be as many annoyed non-newbies going through their
mail grumbling *RTFM* under their breath at every other message :). 
As the bot on #perl says:


<purl> Teach a man to fish and he may feed himself.  Give a man a fish
       and he'll ask you if you could please cook it for him while
       you're at it.

-- 
Fletch                | "If you find my answers frightening,       __`'/|
fletch at phydeaux.org   |  Vincent, you should cease askin'          \ o.O'
678 443-6239(w)       |  scary questions." -- Jules                =(___)=
                      |                                               U
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