Fwd: Re: [Wine]re:re:HELP
John Wildberger
wildberger at cogeco.ca
Sat Oct 9 19:11:34 CDT 2004
Some comments to the subject of help.
-Anyone asking for help is obviously in need of help.
-If you know the answer, give it in a clear way.
-If the cquestion was not clear, ask politely for clarification.
-Always assume the questionair is not as familiar with the subject as you are.
-Don't get hung up by poor language. English is only the first language for a
relatively small percentage of the readers.
-if you don't know the answer refrain from vague suggestions.
-To quote the ' RTFM' (Read The Fine Manual ?) is annoying and in poor test..
-Don't use acronyms in your answer, without a first time usage explanation.
-Be polite when giving help. Rudeness in any form does not help anyone.
-Don't feel like a martyr when giving your time. You don't have to.
Some comments on the subject of manuals:
Manuals are written by experts (most of the time), but unfortunately not by
educators who learned to think at basic levels. As a consequence it is not
surprising that too many people prefere to ask questions first on various
forums to get answers to their problems rather than spending time to read
manuals. Asking a specific question is much more to the point than finding
the right document (book, manual, or whatever). After all, forums are
designed for just this purpose. Also keep in mind that there are no so called
'stupid' questions. There are only stupid answers occasionally.
On the subject of replies:
Replies that take on a note of "I am holier than thou" without giving any
worthwhile information is very counter productive. This thread has seen some
of this kind.
John
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