Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 10:34:15 -0800 (PST) From: Bryan Ogawa at Work <bogawa@netvoyage.net> To: Annelise Anderson <ANDRSN@HOOVER.STANFORD.EDU> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: -questions etiquette Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.92.960326101648.4132M-100000@digital.netvoyage.net> In-Reply-To: <01I2RTI28U7600K419@HOOVER.STANFORD.EDU>
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On Mon, 25 Mar 1996, Annelise Anderson wrote: [...] > I agree with both David and Wes here..... > > But I would like to say that I would rather have a rude answer than > no answer at all--I'd rather have someone say "You idiot, read ___" > than not get anything.... > > And I have posted a question recently that has not been answered at > all, about why pgp does not compile on 2.1. And I think not answering > is rude. I'd have to disagree with you here. I think not answering questions is a perogative that everyone has. I don't answer every question, for a number of reasons: 1. There are some questions I don't know the answers to, and have no trivial way of getting answers to. For example, I have never run PGP and I don't run 2.1.0 on most of the systems I have. The only answer I could give is "Sorry, can't help you", and I don't want to answer every question I see that I can't answer with "Sorry, can't help you". 2. Some questions I think (or see) others have answered. Duplication of effort (and twenty messages saying "this is how you fix it") increases traffic. Unfortunately, if everyone thinks that, no one will answer, and the question will be missed. 3. I don't want to. There are a lot of sub-reasons (I'm busy, I'm late, I want to go home, the answer is extremely complicated and would take too long to write or be misleading, I am actually doing work, I am feeling lazy). I like FreeBSD, but supporting it is not the highest thing on my priority list (nor my employers, I'd imagine). So, I don't think non-answers should be seen as rude. I know how it feels, but it's something where (sometimes) persistence pays off, and having a thick skin (when possible). bryan > > Annelise [...] Bryan K. Ogawa Questions or Problems with NetVoyage? help@netvoyage.net Check out the NetVoyage HelpWeb at.. <URL: http://www.netvoyage.net/~help/>;
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