On Sat, 16 Jan 1993 17:16:00 CST Jim Milles <[log in to unmask]>
said:
>The ability to "ask someone who knows" is the single greatest strength
>of discussion lists. The discussion list I use daily, law-lib, is
>regularly used in this way, and nobody worries about whether a question
>has been asked before; the answer may have changed.
>
>Discussion lists give an individual access to a diverse community of
>experts. Why should an individual spend days searching through ftp
>sites, FAQs, LISTSERV archives, and who knows how many other
>miscellaneous sources, when they could ask a single question on a
>discussion list and receive answers that afternoon from people who know?
Nobody asked them to spend *days* looking for the answer before asking,
the point is to overcome human laziness and do the volunteers who are
going to help you the courtesy of trying to save them time if it doesn't
cost you more than a 3-minutes database search. One thing I can't stand
is people who start their message with "I know the answer is in the book,
but I haven't got time to check books, so I'm asking you". Given that I'm
not paid to answer user questions at all, I take considerable offense at
statements which imply that my time is so obviously less worthy than the
asker's that I should spare them the excruciatingly painful task of
opening a book, checking the index, and then finding the corresponding
page number(s) for an answer.
There is a big difference between "asking someone who knows" and "asking
500 people, of which at least 400 know and have something else to do".
The difference is that you bother 500 people, and then either get no
answer (because everyone assumed someone else would answer), or a dozen
of answers, which further bother the 80% of people on the list who know
and don't care. In more "anarchic" lists (like REXXLIST before I signed
off many years ago), a number of incorrect answers will be provided. This
will irritate people who know, and they will provide the correct answer.
On a lucky day these answers will be contested by the idiot of the month
(they sign off after a few weeks but you get a new one every month
unfortunately) who just combined two errors in the same program statement
because he types while looking at the keyboard and doesn't check on the
screen that what he actually typed is what he thought he typed, and who
got a different result from everyone else and saw this as a proof that
all the knowledgeable people out there are wrong and he will be made a
hero for revealing their mistake. Then 20 people point out that he would
be right if he had written '+', but he wrote '-' by mistake. Well I may
be exaggerating a bit, but not as much as you'd think. When this sort of
things happen, knowledgeable people sign off and the blind start leading
the blind.
Fortunately the lists tend to be self-policing, as most of the "abuse"
comes from the same people. I've seen a question asked on monday by Joe,
get a comprehensive answer, and then the exact same question on tuesday
from Jack, who's been on the list for months. If Jack starts developing a
pattern, people start ignoring him and little by little reality sinks in
:-)
Eric
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