I also wonder...

[Edward Croft]

On Mon, 2004-08-16 at 20:58, alan wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Aug 2004, Michael E. Webster wrote:
> 
> <snip for brevity> 
> > Seriously, I'd like to know.  Is it easier to send an email asking for
> > an answer than it is to find the answer yourself?  Sure it is.  Will you
> > remember what you did to fix the problem two months from now?  Probably
> > not.  Is it laziness?  Most likely.
> 
> Sometimes that is true.  Sometimes Google gives you back a bunch of 
> useless information.  Depends on the problem and how you specify the 
> search term.

I have been sometimes sent an email to the group WHILE Googling for just
that reason. I might be in a crunch time, when they need the server or
service up and running. There may be times when there isn't much lead
time and I have to find the info fast. So I post here and Google and
Yahoo and Excite. Have I had my head snapped off, yes. I just shrug it
off. I ignore threads that I see go off on a tangent. Once someone
starts saying Google it, then I quit reading the thread. Why bother, the
next hundred messages are going to be about how it would have been
easier/simpler/more friendly to have just answered the question.
Whatever. Maybe the new user doesn't know about Google. Yet they get
told in a demeaning tone that they should Google first. Maybe the user
doesn't know the "rules". You can't come to the forum and ask a question
unless you Google, read the Encyclopedia Britannica, get your RHCE,
solve world hunger, and be one of Brittany Spears husbands. Okay, maybe
that last one was stretching it. The point being that sometimes the
answer is shorter than the admonishment. We all come here to learn and
grow. Yes, some of the newbies, don't know the rules. They top post,
they send in HTML, they respond to the digest, they hijack threads, but
we treat them like they have been here for years. Maybe I just don't get
it. I have been doing this since '85 and I answer the same questions
from users over and over. I guess some of us are better teachers. It's
like I tell my ex when she complains about telling the kids something
100 times. I tell her that is their job, our job is to teach, so tell
them 101. Eventually they get it, but never talk down to them. 

-- 
Edward M. Croft
Sr. Systems Engineer
Open Ratings, Inc.
200 West Street
Waltham, MA 02451-1121