From: Waider (waider at domain dspsrv.com)
Date: Wed 26 Sep 2001 - 17:03:03 IST
According to silvan delaney:
> so why don't you guy's write stuff in such a way, that all of us dozers can
> understand all the lingo as well as you guy's using or working with linux
> for a long time.
> may it's time to get a newbe linux user mail list?
> silvan
> ps: the annoying aspect lies within the lingo just the same!
> that's why!
Much as I tend to disagree, or at least feel vaguely ill-at-ease with the
opinions and so forth espoused by esr[1] (and co-authors[2]), perhaps you
should read his latest utterance, approximately titled "how to ask a
question in such a way that doesn't get you an insulting answer". Since said
document is perhaps a little verbose, you might like to think about the
following:
* People volunteer help more readily to neophytes who look like they're
trying. Use google. Use an FAQ. Use archived copies of pertinent lists.
Don't simply ask "what's x?". 90% of the time you'll find the answer to
that question on google's first page of hits.
* People in the 'hacker' division of the computer industry get irritated
by things like bad grammar, misuse of punctiation, and spelling errors.
Say all you like about this being bad from a PR point of view, it's a
fact that's not going to change any time soon. People in the less
hacker-oriented areas of this industry may be more gracious, but then
again, it's a harsh place. This includes, btw, multiple exclamation
marks or question marks, and ALL CAPS. Personally I also find all lower-
case to be both irritating /and/ pretentious, but that's me.
* Be patient. Someone told you to use sox. Did you check to see if it was
installed on your system? Why not? Do you know how? Why not? These are
things that make it look as if you're trying to get someone else to do
all the hard work for you. People here are volunteers, helping out because
they like to do so. If you abuse that facility, don't expect any further
help.
* Learn to walk before you run. I see you don't know how to consult manual
pages. That's a pretty basic problem-solving skill on a Unix box. Do you
know how to search manual pages for keywords? Do you know where 99% of
Linux packages store useful documents like README files? Again, why not?
* Cope with the status quo. As I said, people get snappy about silly things
like punctuation and grammar. Get used to it. Complaining about it will
not make people think to themselves, "he's right, I should've been nicer"
- quite the opposite. You'll either get flamed, or simply ignored. For
any given community, it's considered at least polite to learn the local
customs and, if necessary, endure them. It's considered extremely rude
to change them. This applies to computers just as much as any sociological
entity you consider.
Cheers,
Waider.
[1] If you don't know who esr is...
[2] Hi Rick, got your credit yet?
-- waider at domain dspsrv.com / Chances are I'm not at home right now.
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