Please remember your statement the next time you ask for assistance from
your fellow man; I can only hope that I am that man.

On Sun, 2002-11-17 at 14:04, Jonathan Leffler wrote:
> Jared Still wrote:
> > Based on the following paragraph, you obviously don't understand
> > what is needed when asking people to help you with a script problem.
> > 
> > 
> >>Moreover, I have also noticed on many occasions where the end user would
> >>post a question or concern about some segment of their script and would
> >>post the entire script, they were chastised for including the entire
> >>script, rather than only the offending snippet.  Yet, when the end user
> >>includes a small snippet, and attempts to remove those instructions that
> >>clearly do not effect the issue at hand, they are chastised for that as
> >>well.
> > 
> > Posting the entire script is often useless, due to the fact that there
> > is too much extraneous material there for anyone to easily help you
> > with the problem. 
> > 
> > No doubt most everyone on this list *could* do it, but why should we?
> > 
> > It takes too much time.  
> > 
> > Offering just a snippet of the code is often just as useless, there's
> > no context, not enough of the script is available to determine what
> > has happened up to that point.
> > 
> > It falls upon the poster ( that would be you ) to create a concise 
> > script that demonstrates the problem you are having, without
> > all of the clutter that is ineherently included when trying to solve
> > a business problem.
> > 
> > Doing so, it is often revealed what the problem really is, and you 
> > won't even need to ask for help.  
> > 
> > Cutting and pasting 100 lines of code into an email is a signal to 
> > me that the poster has not done any or enough homework.
> > 
> > Personally, why I see a lengthy script in a plea for help, I just move on
> > to the next message.  It's terribly naive of someone to expect volunteers
> > to sort out their entire programming effort.
> > 
> > Kudos to those on the list that do respond, I guess I don't have the 
> > patience to do 90% of someone else's work for them.
> 
> 
> Hear, hear.  Your observations are directly to the point.  And Tim 
> gave a relevant URL recently, too:
> 
>      http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
> 
> I last looked at it a year or so ago -- it's improved since then and 
> is worth a revisit.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jonathan Leffler ([EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]) 
> #include <disclaimer.h>
> Guardian of DBD::Informix 1.00.PC2 -- http://dbi.perl.org/
> 


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