Asking Smart Questions<tm> (was Re: Etiquette (was Re: left justify))

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Sat, Jun 11, 2005 at 10:21:10PM -0400, Bob Stockler wrote:
> Against my principals I'm going to top post for the sake of brevity.

:-)

> I agree with what both Mark and Jeff have said in this thread.

Thank you, Solomon.

> I abhor requests for help or info that do not contain enough info
> for others to give any help or info.
> 
> These I pass on, as we all should (teach 'em a lesson).
> 
> 'nuff said.

Actually, not necessarily.

I'm going to (possibly re-)post here a link to one of my favorite
documents intended to try to avoid this sort of thing.

It tends to hew a little closer to Mark's point of view (and I'm sure
he's already read it :-), but since the person reading it isn't known
to the person who wrote it, it's a little less personal.

It's called "Asking Smart Questions", and it's as applicable in this
our small world as it is in the big full world.  It was written by Eric
Raymond, author of "The Cathedral and The Bazaar" and editor of "The
New Hacker's Dictionary", and while he is an admittedly opinionated
bastard, he has many god points to make.

Read it.  Learn it.  Live it.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
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