At 08:50 AM 5/23/2002, John Vincent wrote: >Please, > >I know it can be very tempting to make sarcastic comments >about people who ask questions in this list when the answer >is freely available elsewhere, but please remember that now >cygwin is getting more popular, many of the people using it >do not have English as a first language, and so do not always >understand everything on the web pages. I know that this list >should be limited to sensible questions, but if you can't >answer someone's query, it's best not to post a reply at all >(In my opinion).
Unfortunately, not responding at all can lead to the original poster re-posting. For some reason, there are some on this list that insist on getting some response to their query and will keep posting until they do. So simply not responding to posts is not a clear option either. However, your point is taken. While I see no problem with responses that point the poster to other sources of information (i.e. FAQ, email archives, etc.), it makes sense to make any such response as clear as possible. It just cuts down on general confusion. However, I would point out that if the poster has already checked these common repositories of information, the burden is on him/her to let the list know that when they ask for information/help. With very specific information on the source of the poster's problem, the more specific the response can be. Otherwise, the only logical response is to point to pertinent sources of existing information which really cannot be posted here in their entirety with every request. So good questions makes for good responses. For anyone unclear on what constitutes a good question, see: http://cygwin.com/lists.html It behooves posters to do their homework before posting. That doesn't mean that posters *must* do that. Anyone can send any kind of email to this list for any reason. However, not doing ones homework may result in a bit of sarcasm in the response. But maybe those occurrences need to be clearly marked. ;-) Larry Hall [EMAIL PROTECTED] RFK Partners, Inc. http://www.rfk.com 838 Washington Street (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office Holliston, MA 01746 (508) 893-9889 - FAX -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Bug reporting: http://cygwin.com/bugs.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/