Perhaps the word I should have used is "general" instead of "vague". However, I suspect it would have garnered a similar response, and this is not the place for general questions either. Since I cannot even manage to apologize without maintaining a sense of dignity, much less ask precise enough questions, it would appear I should just shut up for now on.
Richard On Jan 26, 2008, at 5:04 AM, Robert Osfield wrote: > Hi Richard, > > On Jan 26, 2008 5:18 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Although new to OSG, I am most certainly not new to software >> engineering, nor how to do 3D graphics. I realize it is my own pride >> that makes me feel patronized at times. This is not the first time I >> have farted at the dinner table so to speak. I need to be better >> about >> communicating that when I ask a vague question, I actually _am_ >> looking for a vague answer that just points me towards where I should >> be focusing my attention. > > The problem which causes me great frustration is that vague questions > are really > just bad questions to answer. If someone is being vague how on > earth are you > supposed to know what answer they actually required. To answer a > vague question > you first have to start off by guessing all the possible > interpretations of a vague > question and then writing an essay on all that possible > interpretations could cover. > > An precise question often just takes a second to understand and often > a single line > to explain. I can quickly reel off ten replies to these types of > questions in five minutes, > I can help ten people off on their way without having a great impact > on my own > schedules. > > Then we come across vague questions, they take much longer to > understand and > require a number of emails back and forth just to get the > clarification about what on > earth the poster is actually after or the problem they have. All of > this takes a huge > amount of time relative to the amount of time that sensible questions > take, its also > hard, it really takes it out of you trying to extract sense from such > threads. Also if > you are hard pressed for time it does have detrimental affect on > mood when end > up clearly wasting so much more of it than a topic deserves. > > So vague question not only don't get you a useful answer quickly, but > they also are > detrimental to others in the community as too much bandwidth and > good will > of those who are willing to try and help out in consumed. Consume > too much time > and goodwill and their end up being less time and goodwill to help > others. > > So you don't need to get better at asking vague questions better, you > just need to > stop asking vague questions and learn how to ask more precise > questions. I know > this is hard, a vague question is easy to write off the cuff and send > out, being precise > is much harder - but its much much more effective and far less > detrimental to others. > > Robert. > _______________________________________________ > osg-users mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org _______________________________________________ osg-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openscenegraph.org/listinfo.cgi/osg-users-openscenegraph.org
