What gives has the list server gone belly up?

[Leon A. Goldstein]

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.
>
I have posted some how-to's on the SxS site and the Libranet support
solutions database (see "User Contributions )
http://www.libranet.com/support/support.cgi?version=2.8"

These are in the "first do this, then do that" format.  I usually
comment on what each step accomplishes.
I try to provide a hand to hold while being a bit didactic.
I still remember the long, painful  frustrating experience I had  as a
beginner trying to get Word Perfect 8 to print.
In the course of that I learned all about the lp commands, mount points,
permissions, tar, make, alien, etc.
As it turned out, printing with WP8 is simple, if you understand the
meaning of "raw printer."
Getting to the point where I understood the meaning of "raw printer"
only came after much throwing of chicken feet
(and other projectiles) at the monitor. :-)


--
Leon A. Goldstein

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