On Fri, 07 May 2004 15:56:06 -0500 Kent West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Chris Metzler wrote: >> >> It's usually the case when someone says "RTFM" or "STFW" that they're >> very aware that the answer is easily found that way. Often they >> themselves have just verified this, and are looking at the needed >> information as they type that response. > > In which case it'd be really nice if they'd take that little extra step > to post the address or man page at which they're looking. Or even copy > and paste it into the message, even though it may be in a hundred > different places on the web already. Granted, that takes a few seconds > more, and a few more bytes of network bandwidth/storage, but it's so > much more Customer Service oriented and helps to make Debianites look > more professional/courteous. (Not that that's our goal, but still . . . > .)
It depends on the situation whether I agree with you are not. I
agree that it's much more "customer service-oriented" to do so; and
when more people here are getting paid to do that customer service,
I have no doubt that more people who would normally act otherwise
will do just that. And you're right that, if you know where the
answer is, it doesn't take much time to paste in the URL or even
the content. But I'm a firm believer in the merits of teaching
someone to fish over giving them a fish. When you've seen "I got
a `Dynamic MMap out of room' error, has anyone seen that before?"
question about 200 billion times, encouraging people to make even
the slightest effort themselves (searching the web for "Dynamic
MMap out of room" just *cannot* be that hard) not only doesn't
seem unreasonable, but for a lot of reasons seems very sensible.
In some occasions, I've done something like "It's often a good idea
before asking questions to do a quick web search and see if you
can get an answer that way. I googled on X and URL Y came up
right away, which has an answer to your question." before. It
all depends on the situation.
-c
--
Chris Metzler [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(remove "snip-me." to email)
"As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I
have become civilized." - Chief Luther Standing Bear
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