Actually, William, the best response is to give directions on where to find
the answer and not the answer itself.
The old "Teach them to fish" concept. :)
So, I can't agree with your simplistic approach of just giving them the
answer and the links to the answer. But this doesn't surpraise me, as I
seldom agree with any of your statements on this list, and when I do agree
with you, I re-examine my beliefs to try and find the fatal flaw in them.
In this case, if you give them the answer first, they will have no incentive
to look up the answer themselves, but will just ask again the next time they
encounter a problem.
And your response does not answer my question of how can a RSP support their
client base if they are not familiar with the FAQs, Archieves and other
excellent support material found on the OpenSRS.
In my opinion, if they can't answer the basic questions that can be answered
through reading the above referenced support information, then they should
not have qualified to be an RSP.
Note that I say this is my opinion. We are not dealing with rocket science
on these basic questions. I also stated that if they read the above
referenced material and still had a question, then help should be given.
So I don't think it is unreasonable to ask anyone to read the material found
on the site for basic support before asking the list to answer the question.
-----Original Message-----
From: William X. Walsh [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 10:56 PM
To: ecs
Cc: Charles Daminato; Jorge Biquez; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re[2]:
Hello ecs,
Monday, November 13, 2000, 7:30:33 PM, you wrote:
> Besides, how are you going to learn how to support your client inquiries
if
> you are not familiar with the FAQs, archieves and the support section of
the
> OpenSRS site.?
> I don't think it is asking too much that a person read the material
> available on the site before asking questions. If you can't understand
the
> material then ask for a clarification.
> But at least try to find the answer yourself before asking the list.
That's all nice and dandy, and all good ideas in concept. But after
years of this kind of stuff, the real world is that this will not stop
the kinds of easy to find on your own questions that people are
complaining about.
It just will not make them go away, it will not work, no matter what
you do there will always be people who post a question to the mailing
list FIRST.
The best way to handle those times is to respond with nothing more
than a link to the answer. Complaining only generates more traffic,
telling them to find it on the website doesn't solve the problem, and
also tends to only generate more unnecessary traffic. If it bothers
you, ignore those questions and let some other kind sole post the link
to the answer.
All of these ideas are great in concept, but the reality of mailing
lists like this one is that they will always have these types of
questions posted to them.
A lot of time, a simple direct, kind answer to a question like that
will point the person to the documentation enough that they answer
their next questions themselves. For example, I've engaged in some
off list correspondence with Jorge here from questions posted on
another list, and I've found him to be the kind who DOES try and help
himself. Some simple answers and direction go a long way towards
helping someone sometimes.
So the bottom line is to either ignore them, which is ok, or send a
response that gives them the answer, and tells them where you got the
answer.
--
Best regards,
William mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
