Re: Thoughts on RTFM

[Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org>]

Jeff.Chimene@etest.com writes:

> Simultaneously, it represents the "rational" voice of most people
> who try to carry the stone, and is astonishingly wide of the
> mark.

I'm having trouble finding your point.  Maybe you could clarify it?
Is it that you think that nobody would ever say more than "RTFM" or
that you don't think anyone should try to learn more than is given in
step-by-step instructions?

> For example, I just purchased the Debian distro from LSL. Guess
> what? 
[...]
> Tell me, [list], how would you phrase such a question so that it
> could be solved with "step-by-step instructions" that don't elicit
> the answer under discussion?

Well, you don't give enough information for anyone to help you but I'd
suggest something like the following:

  I just bought a CD and my computer won't read it. What's wrong?  I
  bought it from vendor X, and I've tried Y, Z, and can't think of
  anything else.  I'm using a XYZZY CD-ROM drive on a Quantum Frobnitz
  770.  Anybody know of common problems with this vendor or any other
  possibilities?  Or somewhere else I could look for help?  How could
  I try to trace this down further?

It would probably yield a few different answers, including some
step-by-step tips on narrowing down the cause of the failure.

I find it interesting that you believe that nobody, on any list, would
try to answer a question of that ilk.  It's also interesting that you
have decided not to ask your vendor about the problems you are seeing,
since they would be best situated to help you.  Instead you choose to
believe a random explanation by a co-worker, 

As far as that explanation, I believe it unlikely.  I can't think of
any reason LSL would use multisession CDs.  (I suppose they could do
it so they could reuse CDs from an older Debian, but I don't think
there would be room.)  It's far more likely that the CD is just bad,
or if they're sending CDR media instead of silver discs, that the CDR
media they used is one which your drive has problems with.  That's a
fairly common problem among old drives, and still persists in some new
drives.  Some CDRs will work fine in a drive, other types won't.

It seems to be as if your determined not to let people help you, so
that may be why you have trouble finding help.

> It's not even *remotely* possible to "familirize (sp?) yourself" with a
> problem like incompatible CD formats. 

That's patently untrue.  People do it every day, especially now that
more people are sending things like photo albums to each other on CD.  

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
If you knew what to say next, would you say it?