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My 20c for WWIII



Hi.

Well, I've been away for just a few days, and my Linux-IL
has just exploded in my face, revealing that I have obviously
missed out on some fun.
  
Seriously, though, I'd like to offer my opinion.

First, I generally support Marc and the flaming philosophy. I'll try
to explain why.

I think that questions SHOULD be asked in the list. For example, not
too long ago, I wrote a message to the list inquiring if anyone knows
anything about Sportster voice control in Linux. Prior to doing this
(listen up newbies), I did the following: Scourge the net with several
search engines, writing a few angry letters to US Robotics, writing
personal mails to some people I know, and looking at the Linux-IL archives.

WHY do people forget the archives exist?? They are one of the most
useful resources for information around! Newbies, you can SEARCH
BY KEYWORD! Almost ALL newbies questions have been answered there...

Second, I'd like to clarify that flaming doesn't mean laughing at someone's
weaknesses, as someone here indicated. Flaming is a PROTECTIVE device.
Harvey's message was very to the point concerning this point.

You must understand, newbies, that most of us want to help. We cannot
help, however, if you send out thoughtless messages. This is because when
my mailbox gets clogged up with 10 thoughtless newbie questions, I simply
don't read them. I imagine this is what every reasonable Linux guru does.
So in the end you hurt yourselves... We also cannot conduct intelligent
discussions on the list (that is, INTELLIGENT thoughtful questions).

I ask very little of newbies, and in order to save list members from the
usual lecture, I'll sum it up into one word - RTFM.

I do agree that Marc goes a little too far sometimes, and I am a great
believer in balance between newbie questions and guru flames, but
the situation has been steadily getting out of hand. The idea is not
to make people scared to post, but, as Harvey put it so accurately,
think before they stand in front of 150 people and ask a question.

Shay

--
Shay Rojansky, roji@cs.huji.ac.il                 Finger for PGP public key