What gives has the list server gone belly up?

[Keith Antoine]

At 07:29 AM 21/12/2003, David Bandel wrote:
>Many years ago, perhaps '96 or '97, I posted answers to questions, but
>often not the answer looked for.  That is, if someone wanted to do X,
>they were often looking for a 'cd here, type this, put that, do the
>other thing, twirl around in your chair 3 times, say the following
>incantation while waving a chicken foot in the direction of the monitor,
>and you'll have it' type answer.
>
>My answers usually worked like:  basically, you have this problem, so
>you need to find information about how to fix K so that Y will work how
>you want.  The info is in the widget man page (just run: man 5 widget)
>and you'll find exactly what you want.
>
>Now, a few folks tried to flame me telling me, either give the guy the
>answer or don't bother posting.
>
>My response was:  better to teach him _how_ to fish ... which is exactly
>what my answers provided.  The missing piece of information with which
>to complete the puzzle (rather than just completing it for him or her,
>so (s)he could perhaps begin to understand _how_ things work).  I've
>lost my touch in recent years.
>
>OTOH, there were a few folks who expected to be spoon fed and for whom
>"RTFM you waste of bandwidth" _was_ the appropriate response.  We
>haven't had any of those folks on this list for a long time.

You also did not mention why the SxS came into being as we onlist were pissed
off answering the same question time after time. rtfm was often used till 
the SxS
came into use under the aupsices of Mike Andrews. BTW what was the name of
that lovely singer we had onlist with computer knowledge, name began with 'E' I
think.

Skippy