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Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 11:05:33 -0400
From: Christopher Faylor <cgf AT redhat DOT com>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: "shouted down", "shot down", apologies
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In-Reply-To: <001f01c1009e$398eb0d0$b2020a0a@SRST20>; from vrice@solidrocksystems.com on Fri, Jun 29, 2001 at 08:20:09AM -0500

On Fri, Jun 29, 2001 at 08:20:09AM -0500, Vince Rice wrote:
>I wasn't the one interested in building Cygwin; I think that was John.

You were apparently responding to my query as to why CVS checkout,
configuring, and building were an apparent big deal here but not in
other mailing lists.

I opined that we got more programming newbies but I didn't really
understand why I didn't see more newbie confusion in other mailing
lists.

I have expressed rhetorical "wonder" at the huge number of newbies that
we get here in the past but, in this particular case, I was being pretty
specific.  I was referring to people who were volunteering to help out
with development.

I think I'm clever enough to realize that a person with no C experience
will not know a lot about C development.

So, you seemed to be responding to a specific query and I was responding
to your response.

>You may not say "use the source" when you know the answer, but many
>here do.

Ok, but you seemed to be accusing me, specifically, of being unhelpful.

It seems to be the case that if someone asks a question and I point them
to the source (these days, I even use a specific file in the source, if
I can) then that is interpreted as a slap in the face.  Perhaps that is
a newbie attitude.  Perhaps a newbie expects that software that they
download for free should come with high-level technical support.  I
don't know.

When I point people at the source, I usually do so because I do not
think that anyone else will be answering their questions.  I could
wai" and see if that is true but I would prefer not to have to set up
some kind of crude bug tracking system which ages requests and then
notifies me when no one has responded.  I assume that Larry Hall feels
the same way about this when he answers generally, rather than
specifically.

It still boils down to how much work I am willing to put into this
project.  I think I have become convinced that time spent answering
questions here is, by and large, not appreciated.  You can see it in the
zip MS-DOS path thread.  I tried to respond quickly with the rationale
for the apparent bug but was quickly accused of "disdain" -- apparently
because I wasn't interested in spending my time fixing that particular
problem.

So, that's fine.  I will try to curb my response to email here and let
the community develop its own mechanisms for answering questions.

cgf

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