On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:33, James Purser wrote: > It is also a great indicator of the ability of the posters ability to deal > with people who a) Might not have the same level of experience, b) may > have a different opinion or c) may not be able to communicate as clearly. > The sooner RTFM is trotted out the lower on a ranking of between 1 and 100 > the users interpersonal skills can be rated.
I'm not so sure I agree with your slant on this. You go on to list a ranking of "how bad" this is, but don't say what/why you would do instead. My own view has been that with Free Software, it's really on the user to voluntarily do their own work, asking when necessary, or for social reasons - but with an expectation that everyone else's time is valuable too, and that I should join in and help. So, rather than seeing this as a brush-off, I can see it as teaching a man to fish - the skills he picks up help everyone. There may be times it's not appropriate to say 'RTFM' to some people, but in this context I think he's writing to someone who knows his way around. 'RTFM' IS the right thing to do in many cases - even for a newbie (although that may not always be the right way to say it). Reading gets the vocabulary and starts getting appropriate questions. Regards, Bret
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