[Asterisk-Users] FAQ, Documentation, How-to, etc

[Rich Adamson]

> > What's been suggested for a FAQ and other "much needed information" for such 
> > a _HIGHLY_ technical software product has been proven thousands of times in
> > the past few months. 
> 
> I think you are trying to make more of an issue out of this than there
> is. I don't think you have seen anyone here try and stand in the way of
> a FAQ, just in the regular mailing of one to the entire group.

It obviously is a much bigger issue then what you think, otherwise there
wouldn't be half as many arrogant responses to newbie questions. Part of
the issue really is not 'stand in the way' but rather 'how can I 
contribute to reducing the chatter'.

> > consistently discourage these same people with "did you search the archives" 
> > or "any dumb fxxx" should know that; just read the code!!!
<snip>
> As this is probably directed at me, at least in part, I should point out

No, it wasn't directed at any one individual. We've both been around
the list long enough to understand the more general comment and its 
certainly easy to look back over the last 30 day archive to see where
the shoe fits.
 
> Simple questions tend to get answered very abruptly. Interesting, harder
> questions get more time and effort. While it isn't an excuse to be rude,
> and I know I can be from time to time, everyone would do well to read
> this page or at least the "Before you Ask" section.

Having been around the open source community since linux was installed
from floppy disks on a 8 meg system, there are lots of well-proven ways
to spoon feed implementation data and reduce the negative postings.
Having just gone through that process during the last 60 days with *,
I can fully understand that frustration. Olle and many others have made
a significant effort to address that, but put yourself in the newbie's
position (just walk through those exact same steps from app discovery
to simple implementation) and you'll "see" the recommended approach is
"post to the list". Those first ten steps don't actually give a newbie
any firm steps on how to find answers or advance their knowledge.

> how much effort is there to open google, THERE IS TONS of documentation on
> * now, READ and understand, its simple, hundreds if not thousands have
> done this before, so can you ...

Using google isn't the issue at all. Here's a quote from earlier today:
"I am newbie in asterisk. Yes. That's a fact. I've been searching for
these answers for two days (around 5/6 hours each day). Found nothing.
Google or anything else : na, found nothing. Either on the web or this
list."  And a different person today, "Worst of all there are no hints on 
searching for this information". 

Part of the problem truly revolves around the fact that * can be extremely
sophisticated with few self-imposed limits, and unless you already 
"know" the keywords that apply to *, one doesn't have a chance at finding 
real answers. Been there done that in the last 60 days, and obviously 
the frustration shows. The arrogant (and frequently incomplete) responses 
only increases the frustration level for _everyone_ on the list.

Absolutely none of this was intended to belittle developers, etc. Its
target was simply those more experienced people that complain (one way
or another) about the newbie questions and do absolutely nothing to help
fix the problem. (And, yes I have volunteered to help with documentation!)