On 16 Sep 2003 15:57:11 -0400 Jason Dixon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hey Jason,
Since this thread was already appropriately labeled off-topic thought i'd pipe in. ;o) > On Tue, 2003-09-16 at 15:30, Kelerion wrote: > > nice answer.. now thats what I like to see in mailing lists.. > > Thanks. > > > informative.. helpful.. but leads the OP to figure things out > > him/herself.. there should be more of this on mailing lists... > > Unfortunately, there are too many a) folks looking for the quick > answer. These are, more often than not, people raised on the "Windows > way" of doing things... call support, get put on hold, get told which The List is a great forum for quick answers to problems that people are faced with. How many times have you yourself looked for an answer on the list? Clearly you know how to _fish_ so you're not looking for someone to say RTFM. If there is an online reference to more information that's a great thing to include in an answer, but why make a paragraph out of an answer that can be stated with a quick example? Often a person who is just learning about Linux does not have enough context yet to appreciate some of the subtleties of a solution. In these cases especially, a quick answer solves their immediate problem and should provide inspiration for them on how to proceed in the future. > buttons to press. Or b) too many folks throwing easy answers out there > without explaining how the solution was resolved. This is also a > problem with many Linux HOWTO documents. > I really enjoy sharing the knowledge that I've acquired over the years. > However, this rarely comes in the form of "you need to set SHMMAX to > blah value", or "compile dillywankers into APCI support". More often > than not, it's "go here, check this out, see where it leads you". This > is more efficient for me, and, for the self-serving student, a much > better opportunity for long term retainment. If the solution to a problem is to "set SHMMAX to blah value" then that is the proper answer to a question. If you have the time to explain the highlights of why it works that's even better. The correct answer should lead them to the correct source for more information. If it's not obvious where this information can be found it's great if you can cite a reference for them. For example if you tell someone that the answer to their problem is a specific iptable command, then clearly they will know they need to read more about iptables. No need to tell them to do that in each and every post. > Not to mention, they're more likely to offer the same assistance to > others later on. :) IMHO, more people are served by seeing the correct answer. They're already looking for the correct answer, just give it to them. Don't assume someone asking a question is stupid and needs to be told to go do more research. Obviously when you've asked questions on the list you were looking for an answer not someone to teach you how to "fish". Cheers, Sean -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
