Re: does debian really suck this much?
At 2002-07-13T22:13:32Z, Stephen Turner <artic_knight@yahoo.com> writes:
> what the heck? people seek help on debian and dont get answers, people are
> getting insulted and debian supposedly has a good rep? no one answers
> questions around here! no wonder debian has a rep of being the hardest
> damn distro to install. no one can get solutions to their issues.
I'm sorry, but I must wholly disagree with you. I've almost always received
answers to my questions - useful, on-topic answers. The key is to know how
to ask.
- Bad question: "Mozilla doesn't work." This gives absolutely *no*
indication of what's not working or how to trigger the problem.
- Bad question: Entire text of the email: "See the subject." No. I've
never seen a question posed entirely in the subject line that had
anywhere near the level of detail to help narrow the answer.
- Bad question: "Please respond directly; I don't subscribe to this list."
No. I'm not going to waste my time privately answering a question that
should go into the public archives. Plus, it's an indirect way of
saying "My time is more important than yours. I want an answer without
having to sort through extra email."
- Bad question: Anything where "man foo" would have given the user a
detailed answers to this particular question.
- Bad question: Anything where Google'ing for "problem foo" would've given
the answer in the first three search results.
- Good question: One where the problem may not be particularly hard, the
poster indicates that they've at least tried to figure it out using
commonly available information resources.
Personally, I'll jump through hoops to help someone solve a non-obvious
problem, or one without a well-documented solution. However, my time's
valuable to me, and I therefore refuse to answer any questions where it
would take me longer to type the solution than it would take the petitioner
to find the answer themselves.
If something's puzzling you, search the man pages. Search Google Web.
Search Google Groups. Then, and only then, should you ask on the list.
--
Kirk Strauser
The Strauser Group - http://www.strausergroup.com/
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