>From: "Peter Graham, Rutgers U. (908) 932-2741" <[log in to unmask]>
>
>Eric Thomas has fallen into the danger we all face as list moderators:
>thinking we're in charge of our listee's lives and opinions (and thinking
>we have license to throw our weight around).
 
[ I promised myself I wouldn't get into this, but....... ]
 
Uh huh.......and you're trying to say that your comments were NOT
directed toward him?  Had you made a similar comment about me, I
would have probably made the same response.  (although I might have
put my response in personal email, instead of list traffic).
 
I'm a freeware author (on the Unix side of the universe), and I've
waded through the same crud we've seen in the last week or so of this
list.  After reading nothing but "you have to add XXXX", "the way you
did YYYY is pretty stupid" and "I can't believe you didn't add ZZZ", I
think that most of us would get pretty darned defensive.  I can assure
you that I would.  In all the discussion of "what LISTSERV needs", I
haven't seen one person offer to *help*.  If someone said "hey, I could
write code to do that; can I help?", I think that Eric <or any freeware
author> would be ecstatic!   Unfortunately, most freeware users seem to
be content to merely make demands (yes, they're phrased as demands and/or
veiled insults).....
 
>I think his rudeness is inexcusable, as common as
>it is to see it in the technical world where people assume personal
>superiority out of possessing particular skills.
 
Did you ever consider how those skills were gained?  People often say
things like "you wizards need to remember what it was like when you
started".  I can't speak for every wizard/guru/whatever, but I can
tell you that I started with my nose buried in documentation.  I car-
ried the _JCL Reference Manual_ around for several months; in fact,
that original copy is still on my bookshelf.  I'm the default "Unix
consultant" here, and I can't even get my users to read the online
help files!  Many, if not most, users, expect to be spoonfed; that's
ridiculous.  If some user came to me and said, "I've read the manual,
but I don't understand this part", I'd spend *hours* helping that
person simply because they made the effort.  The people who say "I
don't want to read the manual; just tell me what to type" tend to get
on one's nerves after a while.
 
>Ms. Tillyer's comments about the purpose of what we do being service to the
>using community remains relevant.
 
Agreed; however, lumping us into categories such as "you wizards" and
"all the 'computer professionals'" remains both irrelevant and, frankly,
a bit insulting.
 
--Wes