XavierP |
12-03-2008 04:07 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by weibullguy
(Post 3363384)
The crummy subject complaint applies to more than fora. I base my claim on ESR's "How to Ask Questions the Smart Way", which states "In the world of hackers, the kind of answers you get to your technical questions depends as much on the way you ask the questions as on the difficulty of developing the answer." This great treatise specifically addresses Urgent et. al. subject lines and states, "Claiming urgency is very likely to be counter-productive: most hackers will simply delete such messages as rude and selfish attempts to elicit immediate and special attention."
So I maintain it is hacker etiquette rather than a more narrow forum etiquette. But, that's simply my opinion and only loosely related to this thread's subject so I'll shut up now.
|
It's not just restricted to hackers. Try going to a garage and grabbing the first mechanic you see and "I need urgent help now! My car is broken" and seeing exactly how much help you actually receive.
It's strictly polite to ask a proper question and to give the person you want help from as much information as you think is relevant. It is even more important in a situation where you are receiving free help and are, in fact, costing the helper in terms of time and effort.
Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet for this. This subject has been discussed time and again and the fact that we are still having it speaks volumes. Jeremy has implemented certain steps to prevent this but it hasn't helped (though I can't think how you could implement metrics to prove or disprove this).
The aim of LQ is to put few barriers in front of posters so that they want to come here and ask for help. We don't charge, we aim to be friendly and welcoming, we only ask for a simple email confirmation and you aren't forced to post here at all - we do have a large number of lurking members. In some ways we are a victim of our own success, in the early days we were part of the nerd hardcore and there was certainly some flaming of new members who didn't know how to post - this was, for the most part, a re-education thing. Now, as linux becomes more mainstream, our membership is no longer made up from IT geeks and other similar people and we have to adapt.
Whatever we do, we mustn't become the type of forum we try to stay apart from - elitist and unwelcoming. If that means that we have to endure the type of thread title and post we all love to hate, well, it's the price we pay.
|