sonny@charybdis.harris-atd.com (Bob Davis) (10/21/90)
Doesn't it seem that WAY over HALF the posted questions in this group are of the generic forms: (1) "Does anyone know where I can find program ________?", or (2) "Are there programs which do __________?", almost ALL of which are resolvable by scanning catalog information files from SIMTEL and/or one or more of the other archives that the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) postings tell you about? ______________________________________________________________________________ Bob Davis, UofALA'66 \\ INTERNET : sonny@trantor.harris-atd.com | _ _ | Harris Corporation, ESS \\ UUCP : ...!uunet!x102a!trantor!sonny |_| |_| | | Advanced Technology Dept.\\ AETHER : K4VNO |==============|_/\/\/\|_| PO Box 37, MS 3A/1912 \\ VOICE : (407) 727-5886 | I SPEAK ONLY | |_| |_| | Melbourne, FL 32902 \\ FAX : (407) 729-2537 | FOR MYSELF. |_________|
rusbara2@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Bob Rusbasan) (10/21/90)
In article <4618@trantor.harris-atd.com> sonny@trantor.harris-atd.com (Bob Davis) writes: > Doesn't it seem that WAY over HALF the posted questions in this group >are of the generic forms: (1) "Does anyone know where I can find >program ________?", or (2) "Are there programs which do __________?", >almost ALL of which are resolvable by scanning catalog information files from >SIMTEL and/or one or more of the other archives that the Frequently Asked >Questions (FAQ) postings tell you about? Actually, you're just seeing half of it. The FAQ postings actually list this as one of the FAQs, so it should never be asked (the idea behind FAQs is that you read them before posting because your question may have already been asked AND answered). The answer of where to look is then given. Does this group have a FAQ posting? If not, it should; even one just telling you to check out comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc's would be adequate. I have no problem with people taking 15 minutes to find out when they can (and waiting for the replies if they use an email method) and THEN posting if they still haven't found what they needed. No FTP capabilities? Well, sorry, but most of these posts are ASKING for an FTP site, so that can't be the problem. Also, the FAQs tell you how to use mail servers... Discussing the programs seems fine to me, ie asking what people think of them. But I think posts like "I'm looking for ***A*** program to do x..." are out of line. The information to find **A** program to do something is readily available. --- Bob Rusbasan bob@en.ecn.purdue.edu
ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi) (10/21/90)
In article <4618@trantor.harris-atd.com> sonny@trantor.harris-atd.com (Bob Davis) writes: > > Doesn't it seem that WAY over HALF the posted questions in this group >are of the generic forms: (1) "Does anyone know where I can find >program ________?", or (2) "Are there programs which do __________?", >almost ALL of which are resolvable by scanning catalog information files from >SIMTEL and/or one or more of the other archives that the Frequently Asked >Questions (FAQ) postings tell you about? Yes, it is true that some of these postings seem to arise from a kind of lethargy in respect to scanning the well available file lists. But also note that the issue is not quite that simple. Sometimes the appropriate program is not easy to find even after a perusal of the file lists. And here the experiences of the other users may come very useful. Let me take one example. I looked for a good binary editor for quite awile. In this it was not enough to scan the file lists. I had to test the various alternatives as well. Now in my case I did this myself. Be that as may now I can share such information with other users potentially asking a similar kind of question, which has no easy answer. There must be a balance between the following two unsatisfactory extremes: 1) Users not daring to post because of a fear of getting flamed their sock off for the posted question. 2) Exploiting others on the net by trying to get them to do even one's trivial work out of sheer laziness. Please be careful of these two extremes both if you are intending to post a question, or intending to flame a poster for asking a question that sounds trivial to a more experienced netter. Now, I not trying to lay down any rules here (it's not even my lot). Only the observation that in posing a question, and answering it, one major consideration is will this information benefit the users. Is it of general interest? ................................................................... Prof. Timo Salmi (Moderating at anon. ftp site 128.214.12.3) School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun
davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) (10/21/90)
I don't consider ftp access universal enough to be troubled by people
asking where things may be found. You might note that things have a way
of being posted after a source is located. I do occasionally ftp
something and post if it I think it would be generally useful. That's my
call, and it's based on the time I have free to do it.
--
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me