Re: How to ask a question?
On Mon, 28 Jul 2025 14:39:21 -0000 (UTC)
Greg <curtyshoo@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2025-07-27, Anders Andersson <pipatron@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > The Debian user mailing list is one of the worse examples in my
> > (limited) experience. Every question gets non-answered by a bunch of
> > people who don't really know about your exact situation, but think
> > they have some valuable input. Often the same bunch of people who
> > then ends up talking to each other. Comparing with for example the
> > OpenBSD user mailing list is like night and day.
> >
>
> This, precisely. They are only talking to themselves, as I have noted
> previously (maybe Max N., who seems interested in this kind of
> foolishness, can verify the date stamps). Every question is
> non-answered by an intimate clan of aging men with toxic attitudes
> and enormous anal-retention, who believe everyone should be using
> mutt or gnus like them and don't know or give a shit about anything
> else.
>
> It's really time for a change here.
>
So possibly it's time for someone to come up with a few pennies to pay
someone really knowledgeable, such as a couple of Debian developers, to
sit in here now and then to give precise answers (to precise questions,
of course).
You seem to be missing the points that nobody here is getting paid, and
of course the topic of this thread implies that the questions asked are
not always well-formed. Quite simply, if the question is precise and to
the point, then a search engine will probably produce the correct
answer, and do so fairly quickly.
Mr Owlett has just asked another question, about spreadsheets. Would
you say that his question was precise and to the point, and that it has
a single, precise and definite answer? Did *you* give him this correct
answer, and if not, why not? You presumably are the exact opposite of
the kind of person you describe, so you must be ideally suited to doing
a better job than we can.
He hasn't yet explained in detail exactly what he wishes to do with this
data. What if what he wants to do is insanely difficult in a
spreadsheet, and could be done much more simply with a database. Are we
allowed to point this out, or does he have to find out for himself the
hard way?
--
Joe
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