Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 11:18:05 +1100 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: Andrew <andrew@quest.shoal.net.au> Cc: Christopher Martin at Home <psycho@keyworld.net>, freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Asking Questions Message-ID: <19980327111804.21299@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980326213300.23877A-100000@quest.shoal.net.au>; from Andrew on Thu, Mar 26, 1998 at 09:41:01PM %2B1100 References: <199803252129.WAA01084@mail.keyworld.net> <Pine.BSF.3.96.980326213300.23877A-100000@quest.shoal.net.au>
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On Thu, Mar 26, 1998 at 09:41:01PM +1100, Andrew wrote:
> There's nothing worse (ok there probably is but you get the point) than
> seeing heaps of traffic resolving a particular problem and then someone
> who has only just subscribed to questions jumps on and asks the same
> question again. Also be aware that the FAQ and search may not provide you
> with an answer even though it was discussed on the list. Cover yourself by
> saying that you read the FAQ and searched the archives but still couldn't
> find the answer. Makes it look like your trying and wins points with guru
> question answerers. (Is that a word?)
You can post to freebsd-questions without subscribing first but you'll have
a much better idea of what/how/whether to ask if you have already been
subscribed to freebsd-questions for a while. Of course you have to use the
handbook, FAQ, and archive search either way, but that doesn't always catch
all of the recent questions you'd see if you were subscribed.
Everyone here should be interested enough to subscribe to freebsd-questions
unless that's difficult (and I know it is for some). There is a lot of mail
but that means there's a lot to learn from. You'll pick up info from the
easier questions, and the difficult or irrelevant questions are good for
getting ideas about how to ask for help. You'll also get an idea of the
volume and quality of the mail that confronts the highly skilled volunteers
who help out there when and if they enjoy doing it.
Tip: It's surprising how many times someone else asks about a problem just
as you were wondering how to fix it yourself. I've managed to hide a lot of
my goofs by waiting a few hours for someone else to confess the same thing :-)
A lot of us, me included, find it hard to know what makes a question good or
bad. Maybe if we pool our thoughts and experiences we can sort some of this
out together? Feel free to let the others know (gently) if you agree or
disagree with what they suggest, and why.
Some ideas to start us off:
If you were advising another newbie about how to ask a question, what would
you suggest to help them write a good question that'll get a good answer?
What would you warn them against doing?
When someone asks a question really badly, what do you think is their
reason?
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
find / -name "*.conf" |more
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