Solution for Up2date problems

[Timothy Murphy]

On Wednesday 07 January 2004 04:28, William Hooper wrote:

> Fred Nastos said:
> > but why not
> > include something like, "Before posting a question to
> > the mailing list, why not search the archives first to see
> > if your problem has been answered.  To search the archives
> > go to http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/"
>
> Isn't this common sense?  

No. Or rather,
what is common sense to one person is not common sense to another.

Fred Nastos is right -- there _should_ be  a remark like this in the document.

> The reason it falls on deaf ears are because
> some people feel it isn't worth their time to learn and just want someone
> to give them the answer.  

I don't agree.
The fault almost always lies with those giving advice,
who all too often do not try to put themselves
into the position of those they are advising.

For example, I wish people would paste the commands they give,
or the URLs they suggest,
or copy a script/typescript file to their posting,
I find advice like "Now go to the Fedora site
and look for advice on sound cards"
rather annoying.

You complained that you have to answer the same query
several times a day.
But why can't you give an exact reference to your previous answer?

By the way, I always read your contributions to this list ,
and find them of great value.

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland