[asterisk-biz] Re: Verizon Interconnection

[Nick Seraphin]

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 alex at pilosoft.com wrote:

> I don't claim to know everything. But if I say something on-list, I expect 
> this to haunt me for the rest of my life (and it probably will), so I 
> better make sure the statements I make are correct. If I don't know, I 
> will either keep my mouth closed or admit that I don't know.

Good point...  all this stuff is archived and indexed by google for
eternity.  Don't want our early ignorance to haunt us. :-)


> Here's the thing: If you are entrepreneur, you are *expected* to know the
> basics of *every* technology used in your business. Because VoIP touches
> so many things (IP networking, telco stuff/tdm, voip-specific stuff,
> general security, application development, billing, etc), this can be
> daunting. However, that also means that ones who *do* get all of those
> things have a leg up on the competition. All is fair.

Not sure I agree that you need to know *everything*, but I do agree that
it can give you a huge advantage and make things easier to succeed.


> Yeah, but before putting foot into mouth (...public ips are not to be used 
> behind firewall, ...ipsec designed to connect networks) one would be well 
> advised to read underlying documents. 
> 
> To go with your example, if you don't know various things about China, you
> should kindly refrain from posting until you learn. 
> 
> In other words, 'LURK MOAR'.


But, wouldn't you agree that QUESTIONS would be fine, so long as someone
who doesn't know what they're talking about post "authoritative"
statements that make people think they do?

I mean, the best way to learn is to ask questions.  But to make a
statement of authority on a subject when you're not absolutely sure you
know what you're talking about... well then that leaves you open to flames
or comdemnation.

For example, what if he had posed his question as "I always thought there
was never a valid reason to use public IP's behind a firewall, am I wrong
here?" instead of an authoritative "There's never a valid reason to do
it!"?

I think it's a bad idea to discourage newbies and un-clueful people from
asking questions on this list...  but I also think it doesn't help for
people to make statements that appear as if they know what they're saying
when they really don't.

Lurking is good... but shouldn't participation be encouraged, so long as
they don't pretend to be the expert they aren't yet?

-- Nick