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Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 18:43:28 -0600
From: Warren Young <warren AT etr-usa DOT com>
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Ken Collins wrote:
> 
> the volume of questions, it should be taken in part as a indicator that the
> project needs more institutional memory. For example, if there was a list
> of known bugs linked from the Cygwin home page, it might cut back on repeat
> questions.

Another way for this to happen is for the experts to start ignoring
newbie questions.  Eventually, lesser experts will step up and start
answering the easy ones, or the newbie will get no answer which is a
pretty good clue that the question is either difficult or answered
elsewhere.

This is not theory -- I've seen both of these things happen on various
lists and newsgroups.

A few months ago I suggested something similar to your "institutional
memory" idea, and got shouted down.  I proposed moving more of the
answers from the list into the FAQ, and was told that the Cygwin
powers-that-be take the expansion of the acronym "FAQ" quite literally,
and that everything else belongs on the list.  Therefore, the list
archive _is_ Cygwin's institutional memory.

-- 
= Warren -- ICBM Address: 36.8274040 N, 108.0204086 W, alt. 1714m

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