Bret wrote:

>You go on to list a ranking of "how bad" this is, but don't say what/why you
>would do instead.

This is quite common in this lists. Criticisms and no alternative ideas.

>My own view has been that with Free Software, it's really on the user to
>voluntarily do their own work, asking when necessary, or for social reasons -
>but with an expectation that everyone else's time is valuable too, and that I
>should join in and help.

The accepted practice is 'my time is important as yours. Tell us what you've
done and we'll tell you how to make it right."

>So, rather than seeing this as a brush-off, I can see it as teaching a man to
>fish - the skills he picks up help everyone.

>From what I can understand the person's post indicates to me he knows
what's he's about.
So, RTFM retort is not a brush-off, I agree.

>There may be times it's not appropriate to say 'RTFM' to some people, but in
>this context I think he's writing to someone who knows his way around.
>'RTFM' IS the right thing to do in many cases - even for a newbie (although
>that may not always be the right way to say it).  Reading gets the vocabulary
>and starts getting appropriate questions.

I'm not subscribed to this list but followed the post on the WEB and
I believe the RTFM retort was appropriate in the context.


PG
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