Asking a question.

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Mon, Jun 13, 2005 at 10:37:27AM -0500, Ray Scheel wrote:
> > On Monday, June 13, 2005 9:53 AM Tom Pancero said:
> >    To the list & especially fairlite,
> > 
> > YOU STILL MISS THE POINT!
> > 
> > Lose the EGO and try a little humanity.
> 
> I'm another member of the younger crowd that still remembers the
> firestorm when AOL users were unleashed on to Usenet without being
> pointed first towards the basics of nettiquette and the bloodbath that
> came immediatley after that.  

Incidentally, Ray: the September that Never Ended?  It's over:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

> Ken's most recent comment hit the nail on the head, the cut to the point
> responses here are the best attempt of the list to actually find out
> help someone needs.  I've been reading the list long enough to notice
> that new faces get cut a little slack the first few times, and the one
> that are on the ball pick up pretty quick on how to format their
> questions to get good answers quickly.  I don't post to the list often
> with issues, but when I do I make sure all the details are in my first
> post and I usually get the answer I'm looking for (or a good guess that
> leads me there) in the first wave of responses.

Unlike most *commercial* support enterprises.

I can't explain to you the number of times I've Asked Smart Questions
of service provider support organizations, and been asked 2 or 3 more
rounds of questions to which I'd already provided the answers.

> The amount of tooth-pulling several semi-regulars impose on the list
> when they ask for help is unjustifiable when there is no doubt they know
> what is expected and refuse to provide the details apparently just to
> stir the pot.  That is simply not a good strategy when you require
> assistance from the very individuals you are attempting to rile up.
> Those are the folks that need to drop their egos and start to play ball
> the way the game works, because none of the rest of us are going to
> magically become long-distance mind readers to be able to fill in the
> details they are leaving out and deliberately refusing to share.

And, on a related front, it's usually not a bad idea to chime in on the
answer side (when you're *sure* you have the right answer, which I
myself don't always get perfectly right :-) to build up credit for
those times when you need answers yourself.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
Designer                          Baylink                             RFC 2100
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St Petersburg FL USA      http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 647 1274

      If you can read this... thank a system administrator.  Or two.  --me