On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 08:42:16AM +0000, Jamie Paul Griffin wrote:
> [ Erik Christiansen Wrote On Thu 29.Nov'12 at 5:26:49 GMT ]
> > It can be worse than just evidencing irritation at inconsiderately
> > formatted posts, fullquoting, top posting, lack of proper sentence
> > structure, html, or other failure to show consideration to the very
> > readers who are (most often) expected to offer solutions to the poorly
> > presented problem statement. Some readers just delete an offending post
> > as soon as it registers as laborious to unravel.
Look at it from the other direction---you're on an e-mail list, where
people ask questions, and other people use their own free time and
volunteer to help those asking the questions. It is perfectly reasonable
to expect that the person asking the question
A) do their homework first (i.e., try to solve the problem on their
own before asking);
B) take the time to post the information needed to help (e.g., in the
Android developers list, that would be the purpose of your app,
what you were expecting, what really happened, relevant//suspect
code, and relevant log (logcat) output);
C) post in clear, concise English (or whatever the usual language is
on the list), using, to the best of your ability, proper spelling,
grammar, punctuation, and capitalizatino (not all one case);
D) post in the format used and preferred on said list...that means
default line wraps, top//mixed posting, proper trimming, useful
subject lines (that does NOT include things like "Hi", "Help me",
"My app won't work", etc.);
E) and finally, remember that you are asking someone to give of their
time to help you, and never demand immediate help, ask for full
code for the app (fully tested, of course) for the app, and so on.
If people can't be bothered to take the time to do these things, more
often than not, the gurus on the list won't bother to take the time to
answer. It's a question of mutual respect, consideration, courtesy,
etc., and if you don't like that, well, that's the way it usually is, so
get used to it.
In the Android list, there are those (typically NOT the ones who are the
gurus on the list) who will answer, but from what I've seen, they often
post some really...ummm...strange "solutions" (if you're in a generous
enough to call them that). Often these solutions then need (but may not
get---see above) corrections after either being pure bs or not even
supported, which might work here, might crash there, and might do
something completely unexpected and right "out of the blue"....
> > Reader respect is one currency in which an appellant for help pays the
> > better informed list members who give their time and intellect to solve
> > a problem which isn't theirs. The practice has worked well so far for so
> > many, but it's not so rigid that newcomers can't try their luck, I
> > think.
What I normally see is users who post nonsensical or otherwise difficult
to read posts being advised how they SHOULD post if they want answers.
I sometimes take the time to try to help in that regard, myself, but I
won't try to read the OP's mind. Sometimes, those advice posts use links
(two in particular, a list that explains how to post "smart questions'
and one that is basically, "Let me google that for you"). I can never
remember the URLs for either (chemobrain from cancer #1), so mine are
written out. I should, now that I think about it, make an abbrev for
both of those (something like abbrev _smartquestions [link]). :-)
> > Allowance for non-native English authors is good, in my experience, on a
> > variety of technical lists.
On that, we definitely agree, but the OP should still try to find a good
translator...obviously, some are MUCH better than others. But then, I
have also run into several (some of which I consider good friends OFF
of the list) who, while not a native English speaker, speak (and type)
better English than many native English speakers...better spelled, better
grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and vocabulary. I just wonder
which nation's school system is the most responsible for that.....
Other times, however, the OP's translation is so unreadable that any
attempt to help would be useless. This also includes native English
speakers who use twitter-speak, or similar types of typing.
Later,
--jim
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