Felix von Leitner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes on 30 November 2000 at 21:27:57 +0100
> Thus spake Dave Sill ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
> > I'm not a big fan of newbie smackdowns, though a repeat offendor might
> > warrant one. I think newbies generally respond better to reward than
> > punishment. E.g., instead of:
>
> This is a question that I have asked numerous times and I never got a
> good response for it:
>
> Why would you want to help rude newbies?
It makes me feel superior. Also, it tends to keep the tone of the
group more pleasant.
> Don't get me wrong: helping newbies is essential for the survival of the
> knowledge. But if I have the choice, I will not help people who are so
> dumb that they will probably get killed the next day because they
> thought pissing on overland power lines is a bright idea.
I wouldn't want to go anywhere *close* to somebody that dumb; they
might do something that would attract incoming fire, too.
Luckily, they're rare. The exact category "pissing on overland power
lines" doesn't seem to exist in the cause-of-death statistics, but at
a rough guess there are, um, zero people killed that way each year.
So I don't worry about them *too* much.
> And that includes people who
>
> a. are too dumb to state their question properly
> (this includes bad grammar, bad spelling, bad quoting and obnoxious
> signatures)
Remembering that English is not the first language for everybody; I
make considerably more allowances for somebody who is writing English
better than I write German or Russian, than I do for people who
obviously just aren't trying.
> b. are too dumb to state their question in the proper forum
> c. are not friendly (i.e. demand answer instead of being polite)
> d. whine when someone points their mistakes out to them
>
> If someone who matches any of those points wants my help, he has to pay
> for it. Or, he can be really really friendly to me. Or he can read the
> documentation that I put on my web page. If that is not sufficient,
> then that person is out of luck. No, I am not sorry.
Your time, your rules.
I certainly agree that my correct reponse to being caught in an error
is somewhere in the range from "Ah! Thanks" to "Doh!" to "I see I was
having a particularly braindead moment, thanks for bailing me out",
and does not extend to whining.
> > The former approach *might* work, but is more likely to offend the
> > newbie. The latter is polite and informative. An educated, unoffended
> > newbie is much more likely to want to change his ways.
>
> If he doesn't want to change his ways, then he is welcome to examine the
> inside of my spacious killfile. Noone is obligated to help idiots. In
> particular, I am not.
True. You're welcome to killfile them, or just ignore the messages.
You're certainly not under any obligation. And it's obvious that your
attitude will be better if you don't try!
Just so you don't get to the point of arguing that it's actively
*wrong* to help them (which you haven't yet).
--
David Dyer-Bennet / Welcome to the future! / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
SF: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ Minicon: http://www.mnstf.org/minicon/
Photos: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/
