How to ask questions the smart way

[Joe Feise]

Maybe it is time to point people to Eric Raymond's classic:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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[Thommy M.]

Joe Feise wrote:
> Maybe it is time to point people to Eric Raymond's classic:
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>  

Maybe it's time to write the smart-answers part too...

Oh, it's there:


    How To Answer Questions in a Helpful Way

/Be gentle./ Problem-related stress can make people seem rude or stupid
even when they're not.

/Reply to a first offender off-line./ There is no need of public
humiliation for someone who may have made an honest mistake. A real
newbie may not know how to search archives or where the FAQ is stored or
posted.

/If you don't know for sure, say so!/ A wrong but authoritative-sounding
answer is worse than none at all. Don't point anyone down a wrong path
simply because it's fun to sound like an expert. Be humble and honest;
set a good example for both the querent and your peers.

/If you can't help, don't hinder./ Don't make jokes about procedures
that could trash the user's setup — the poor sap might interpret these
as instructions.

/Ask probing questions to elicit more details./ If you're good at this,
the querent will learn something — and so might you. Try to turn the bad
question into a good one; remember we were all newbies once.

While muttering RTFM is sometimes justified when replying to someone who
is just a lazy slob, a pointer to documentation (even if it's just a
suggestion to google for a key phrase) is better.

/If you're going to answer the question at all, give good value./ Don't
suggest kludgy workarounds when somebody is using the wrong tool or
approach. Suggest good tools. Reframe the question.

/Help your community learn from the question./ When you field a good
question, ask yourself “How would the relevant documentation or FAQ have
to change so that nobody has to answer this again?” Then send a patch to
the document maintainer.

If you did research to answer the question, /demonstrate your skills
rather than writing as though you pulled the answer out of your
butt./ Answering one good question is like feeding a hungry person one
meal, but teaching them research skills by example is showing them how
to grow food for a lifetime.


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[Joe Feise]

Thommy M. Malmström wrote on 03/01/09 11:26:

> Joe Feise wrote:
>> Maybe it is time to point people to Eric Raymond's classic:
>> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>>  
>
> Maybe it's time to write the smart-answers part too...
>
> Oh, it's there:


Of course it is there...
And if you notice, I have followed it rather well, pointing people to the right
path.
People can be expected to follow the path shown.
If they are unwilling to do that, and instead whine, or go off on a tangent,
they deserve all the scorn they'll get.
Going back and forth for two days only shows PEBKAC.
It wastes everybody's time.


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[Joerg Schilling-3]

"Thommy M. Malmström" <thommym@...> wrote:

> While muttering RTFM is sometimes justified when replying to someone who
> is just a lazy slob, a pointer to documentation (even if it's just a
> suggestion to google for a key phrase) is better.

When people don't read the man page but something different and then call this
the man page, we have a problem. This is what happened in our case.

I guess that if you like to know something about your new Golf (may be called
Rabbit in some areas) I am sure that you don't read the man page from a 40 year
old Beetle.

Under the best circumstances, the named URL points to a 10 year old original
man page.

The current man page starts this way:

Maintenance Procedures                                 MKISOFS(8)

NAME
     mkisofs - create  an  hybrid  ISO9660/JOLIET/HFS  filesystem
     with optional Rock Ridge attributes.

SYNOPSIS
     mkisofs [ options ] [ -o filename ] pathspec [pathspec  ...]
     mkisofs [ options ] [ -o filename ] -find [find expression]

DESCRIPTION
     mkisofs is effectively a pre-mastering program  to  generate
     an ISO9660/JOLIET/HFS hybrid filesystem.


and please note that the -find option has been added in August 2006.

Jörg

--
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 URL:  http://cdrecord.berlios.de/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily
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[Phil Rhodes]

> Under the best circumstances, the named URL points to a 10 year old
> original
> man page.

Ah, right, now we have some actual information in this thread.

Now where do I get an up-to-date man page?

And will you for god's sake fix the list software so I don't have to
manually enter the cdrecord-support address *every single damn time*?

P


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[Joerg Schilling-3]

"Phil Rhodes" <phil_rhodes@...> wrote:

> > Under the best circumstances, the named URL points to a 10 year old
> > original
> > man page.
>
> Ah, right, now we have some actual information in this thread.
>
> Now where do I get an up-to-date man page?

If you did install a recent cdrtools you installed a recent set of man pages.
This is why I did encourage you to read the man page for mkisofs.

Jörg

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 URL:  http://cdrecord.berlios.de/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily
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[Quey]

pot kettle black

all YOU have done is generate NOISE, what the fuck does this have to  
do with cdrtools?  NOTHING! piss off and stop trying to tell people  
how they can/should post.



On 02/03/09 05:53:15, Joe Feise wrote:

<nothing but trolling>
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