[OT] - [Asterisk-Users] Why should I answer a Newbie question, therethick!

Fri Mar 4 00:04:46 MST 2005

Look.  Lets make it simple.

In most cases, if a guru is bored or not interested in a noob question they just ignore it.  Personally, I find myself answering some of these specifically because I am not a guru and not quite a noob anymore either.  The majority of those that dump what are essentually dumb questions here do so because they know no better.  They are new at *, sometimes new at Linux, and most of all new to the list.  Doesn't offend me, I just send them a "google site:lists.digium.com <some word>" email and explain why they are getting ignored.

Everyone in this current thread has a good point.  Yes, people really should RTFM but maybe it is not in everyones interest to rag them about it.  We can use better ways of communication without trying to send a negative vibe to the new guys. 

Yes, people who know no better should be given some slack and taught and "shaped" into good questioner, list users, and hopefully contributors.  Regardless, taking offense in any situation like this is counter productive.

Gurus, keep on doing your thing.  Answer those you find worthy and ignore those that didn't study Asterisk 101. Or if you want to help out even the most mundane of questioners, then more power to you.  Then, if your voice is heard, it is only when you are doing something positive to help out another and help out the Asterisk community.  Why speak up at all if it is a waste of your time?

Everyone else, make it a point to give direction to the noobs so they know where to start out.  Consider it Asterisk boot camp and we all get to train a complete * virgin or two.  Direct them to the starting point and tell them the rules of the game.

My guess is that the majority of us on this list are not people who have been involved since the inception of Asterisk.  Most of us got a start with a rudimentary understanding and the desire to be part of the open source community, not to mention save some bucks.  That means most of us asked a dumb question or two.  Personally, I have gotten the snide reply before when I asked a dumb question.  Also I have gotten some wonderful advice and direction when I asked the right question and showed I put forth a real effort.  That taught me the way this works and I adhere to it now.  Lets teach them the same.

You don't have to throw the noobs a bone if you don't want to but remember that you are shaping the next generation of Asterisk users and hopefully the next group who will carry Asterisk to even more people.  You patience nets us one more person who is on the Asterisk wagon and that is a good thing.

That is just my $0.02.  Please don't flame me.  There is no point to this kind of angst on the list.  It is a waste of email when we should all realize that participation is voluntary.

Best regards to all,
Wiley

________________________________

From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com on behalf of Ronald Wiplinger
Sent: Thu 3/3/2005 9:46 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [OT] - [Asterisk-Users] Why should I answer a Newbie question,therethick!

Steven Critchfield wrote:

>On Thu, 2005-03-03 at 17:59 -0700, Paul Fielding wrote:
> 
>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>   
>>
>>>Look, don't answer lame questions if you don't want to. Flaming a newb
>>>for being a newb is just mean. (they will eventually RTFM or STFW or
>>>they will fail). This is the way of the open source community.
>>>     
>>>
>>Here Here, I'm with you.  I find it a constant source of amazement how, in
>>all the various lists I've followed, people find it necessary to beat on the
>>new guy.  Even the 'if you don't want to get flamed then do some research
>>first' attitude i'm not a fan of.  Sometimes newbies are also newbies to the
>>concept of lists, etc, as well as the topic of the list.
>>
>>Frankly, I agree.  If you don't like the question, feel it's lame or dumb,
>>or don't like that someone hasn't done their research, then delete the
>>message.   If you think they're wasting your time by writing a message, then
>>don't waste any more of your own time by responding to it.  I find the
>>pummelling of newbies more annoying than the newbie question itself.
>>   
>>
>
> 
>

Sometimes it is not the "if" you make a search, often is for new comers
"what" to aks for.
If you do not know the specific term, than you need to ask somewhere,
and I think the list is good for that.

To point to the 'wiki' or 'Google' in general often does not make
sense!!! Just be silent than, if you do not know a better hint!!!

If I get a reply to my question "Look at the wiki" or "Have you searched
it on Google" is for me just a time waster!!
If the answer is, look up "xxx" "yyy" than it makes more sense to me!!!

The term RTFM is not always a good hint either! Sometimes the right
answer, even it is the 100th times is better (maybe even shorter) than a
comment like that!
Besides the documentation of * and add-ons are either changing often or
changing not often enough to the newest version.
As user we cannot "guess" what the developer team found better to use now.
E.g., ASTCC is a great product, just there is little till nothing to
find in the wiki or Google, ... Asking in the list was also never answered.
The best product is worthless, if you cannot document it!!
I know that documentation is the last thing to do. Even my lawyer in the
school told me, if you want to save money, ask for two set copies of a
manual included to the machine. 95% of technical companies will fail to
give you that IN TIME, and there you can than deduct for each day!!!

Often I think, why somebody does not make a screen shoot of all he has
developed and attach it, so that we can guess more what the product can
do. Again for ASTCC (obviously I fight with that one right now ;-) )
e.g., I cannot find anything for USERS and SIP/IAX friends, ....

1.5 cents

bye

Ronald

>As I have told others before. This list is a valuable resource even for
>those of us who know a lot about asterisk already. The users who would
>rather come here than do any work on their own become pollution to this
>list. They are the repetitive spam that has no benefit to the ones
>receiving it.
>
>This type of behavior has run many of the "guru"s off of this list. They
>are unlikely to be replaced.
>
>BTW, telling a user they haven't done the prerequisite home work before
>asking a question is no where near pummelling. Pummelling would be
>calling them names and making personal attacks. Life is full of venues
>where you need to meet specific criteria before you are considered
>worthy of interacting.
>
>All that to lay the ground work to say that when we send a user back out
>to the search engines to do their homework, we do so as a jealous
>protecting of this forum and what value we receive from it.
> 
>

--
Ronald Wiplinger  (CEO of ELMIT)
http://www.elmit.com    +886 (0) 939--77-55-16  or FWD 511208
- I'm a SpamCon Foundation Member, #694, Verify it at http://www.spamcon.org

PS: Spam prevention!
Our system is protected with a spam prevention program.
If you send us an e-mail, our system will send you a confirmation message back. Just reply to this confirmation message please.
After receiving this confirmation message, our system will send the hold message (one) and all future messages (after the received confirmation message) to me without asking you again.

_______________________________________________
Asterisk-Users mailing list
Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20050304/9786a87e/attachment.htm