Re: OT: Mailing list help (was Re: GnuPG: prblem installing on Woody)
On Fri, Oct 20, 2000 at 04:35:39PM +0100, Mark Brown wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 20, 2000 at 11:23:54AM -0400, Chris Gray wrote:
>
> > When you say "post output of <command list>", you probably have some
> > idea what's going on but want confirmation (otherwise, you'd just be
> > adding noise).
>
> Often that's not the case - people frequently ask questions but don't
> provide nearly enough information to debug a problem. You can start
> guessing at possible causes, but there's a fair chance you'll end up
> picking the wrong one and/or being more confusing than just asking for
> the information needed to work things out.
Right, I'm not telling people to make bricks without straw: just let
people know what their suspicion is and how they would fix it if their
suspicion turned out to be true.
Obviously, if someone just says, "I can't get X to work" then that
information is pretty much useless without the other information of
their video card and monitor. But if you do have an idea of what's
going on, don't keep it to yourself or hide it behind a question.
That's really all I'm saying.
Cheers,
Chris
--
IF I HAD A MINE SHAFT, I don't think I would just abandon it. There's
got to be a better way.
-- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.
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