[plug] Newcomers' welcome

Craig Ringer craig at postnewspapers.com.au
Tue Feb 1 00:12:39 WST 2005


On Mon, 2005-01-31 at 18:47, Carl Gherardi wrote:

> > http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html (which does also

> That page has a lot of good points, some of it some off very elitist -
> this mailing list has a broader focus than a true technical mailist.

Personally, I cringe whenever anybody is directed to that. I suspect
spelling flames (when they are flames, not polite requests) and replies
the reader may perceive as "too technical" are nowhere near as
off-putting as being directed to that piece of very useful, but IMO also
elitist and perhaps pompous writing. And that's coming from me :-P

On the Python list I often see people reply with nothing but that URL.
It makes me cringe every time, as find it hard to imagine many better
ways to say "You don't matter, we're better than you, go away."

Perhaps my dislike of the document is overblown or irrational... but I'd
be much happier not having any welcome message for PLUG refer to it.
That said, paraphrasing a number of its points would no doubt be useful,
as Carl has mentioned below:

> Bits that could be adapted:
> 
> Before You Ask - Little bits of this in the original post, possibly
> worth emphasizing good resources
> Use meaningful, specific subject headers - Kinda mentioned, but quite
> important I think. I personally filter just on subject line when busy.
> Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language - Another one
> that needs a bit more emphasis in the post. I stop reading something
> that doesn't make sense, or is difficult to read due to
> capitalisation.
> Be precise and informative about your problem (Covered by 1 in original message)
> Describe the problem's symptoms, not your guesses - "My computers
> broken - I need more RAM", frustrats the hell out of me. We dont get
> anything that bad here but it couldn't hurt to mention this.
> 
> Otherwise the message is pretty well written James,
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Carl G
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.linux.org.au
> http://spark.plug.linux.org.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au




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