While we're on the topic of advocacy, I'd like to briefly mention the RTFM reflex. Most of the people working on these projects are *working*. They have no time to coddle stupid questions from newbies who didn't *bother* to RTFM. I do understand that, and I sympathize. But if we're talking advocacy, I must point out that as a newbie, my biggest problem was finding out where to look to *find* the manual. Also, when I was trying to get this system working ~now~, (the "out-of-the-box" problem we keep seeing), it was frequently important that I get answers quickly, and though I hated to bother the list with mundanities, it was a lot faster to ask (and get a response amid the RTFM's) than to read through a dozen documents to find where the information I needed, especially when it was ditributed among three or four of them and I needed to understand the relationships before it made any sense..... I know improving the quality and interrelatedness of our documentation is an ongoing effort, but though I have most often seen a very helpful and friendly attitude towards (yes, even stupid) questions, I remind us all that one "RTFM and quit wasting our time, jerk" response will sour someone on the ENTIRE language, and that the someone might always have been the next Bill Gates looking for a tool to sponsor.... Personally, I know that I'm less qualified for the in-depth questions, so I tend to *look* for the misplaced and ignorant requests. Explaining how to access an entry in a hash isn't worth a lot of people's time -- but I see those people occasionally spend the time to point that out. While we're at it, let's always take the extra few seconds to be *nice* about it, and at least make a token effort while we mention that there's a better forum for that at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kudos to those of you who have consistently shown that patience, and raspberries to those who haven't. >:op (thpbpfhtbphff!!!) And again, finally, many thanks to all of you who have nudged me each time a little closer towards competency. Yopu folks are another reason I like Perl. ;o] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
