Caron van Schalkwyk wrote:

Bruno, I have checked my original question and it  was sent
to the mailing list and NOT yourself.
Given the amount of mail I receive on a day,
none of my answers are personal.
There is no need to take it personal.

I have stopped using the mailing list as each time you
tell me I should consider getting a colsulatant; all I am trying to
do is find the best way to do something by the people who are
experts in this field.
You can't expect me to give an accurate answer on questions like
'what is the best way to...' because (certainly in iText) there is almost
always more than one way to do something. The 'best way' depends
on the project specifications. When I say this, people often send me
the complete project specifications, so I refer to consultants proactively.
Again: I don't say you sent me a complete project description, it's only
a general remark.

Yesterday Antoine wrote:
> I had someone else saying this to me not so long ago... and then I
> happened to ask the right question, and that was all that I needed to
> solve the problem I had. It got me on the "right path".

That's exactly the issue. If you ask the right question, you get an answer.
Yet I felt a somewhat angry undertone in Antoines remark.
People seem to expect that we understand every question.
If we don't they consider us to be obnoxious.

If I ask you 'what coat should I wear today?', I'm not making fun
of you. It's just an example of a question you cannot possibly answer:
you don't know anything about the weather overhere.
You miss a lot of essential information to answer that question.

People have the right to be dissatisfied with the fact that they don't
always get the right answer on a F/OS mailing list (they've probably
forgotten how bad it sometimes was dealing with support people from
propriety software products).
But there's not much fun in it anymore if I have to start defending
myself against people who's feelings I've hurt by referring for instance
to paid consultancy. Most people have no idea about the pressure
that is put on F/OS developers, for instance by major companies.
The last thing we need is people complaining on the mailing list
about my temper. Being autistic, day to day (Real Life) communication
is very hard for me. The internet is/was a good way to bridge the gap
between my autism and the neurotypical behavior of the majority of
people. I'm not that sure about that anymore after reading some of
the most recent mails. Give me a break, please!
br,
Bruno


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