Thus spake Dave Sill ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
> I'm not a big fan of newbie smackdowns, though a repeat offendor might
> warrant one. I think newbies generally respond better to reward than
> punishment. E.g., instead of:
This is a question that I have asked numerous times and I never got a
good response for it:
Why would you want to help rude newbies?
Don't get me wrong: helping newbies is essential for the survival of the
knowledge. But if I have the choice, I will not help people who are so
dumb that they will probably get killed the next day because they
thought pissing on overland power lines is a bright idea.
And that includes people who
a. are too dumb to state their question properly
(this includes bad grammar, bad spelling, bad quoting and obnoxious
signatures)
b. are too dumb to state their question in the proper forum
c. are not friendly (i.e. demand answer instead of being polite)
d. whine when someone points their mistakes out to them
If someone who matches any of those points wants my help, he has to pay
for it. Or, he can be really really friendly to me. Or he can read the
documentation that I put on my web page. If that is not sufficient,
then that person is out of luck. No, I am not sorry.
> The former approach *might* work, but is more likely to offend the
> newbie. The latter is polite and informative. An educated, unoffended
> newbie is much more likely to want to change his ways.
If he doesn't want to change his ways, then he is welcome to examine the
inside of my spacious killfile. Noone is obligated to help idiots. In
particular, I am not.
Felix
