Overly brief answers (was Re: Terminal Server)

Jerry McAllister jerrymc at clunix.cl.msu.edu
Mon Jun 21 08:19:44 PDT 2004


> 

> > > I wanted to start a brief discussion about these kinds of answers to 
> > > questions.
> > > 
> > > I've been seeing this quite a bit lately.  I don't know if it's just one 
> > > person,
> > > of if multiple folks have picked up on it.
> > > 
> > > <opinion>
> > > This is not an answer to the question.  It does not answer the question 
> > > and does
> > > not contribute to the OPs knowledge of FreeBSD, nor does it contribute to the
> > > list archives.  It's also a violation of the rule against "me too" answers as
> > > laid out in "How to Get the Best Results from FreeBSD-Questions".  It doesn't
> > > even serve to educate the OP on how to ask better questins.
> > 
> > on the issue of the _short_ answer;   In the case of this question, it is
> > probably obvious that the poster needed more useful information - at least
> > a pointer to some info.   Then, it looks bad to just give a smart alec yes
> > or whatever other less than useful reply.
> 
> I'm wondering if these short "yes" answers aren't all smart-alec, but some of
> them are possibly an attempt to answer before anyone else.
> 
> I know, I've seen a question I could answer, made sure it hasn't already been
> answered (to avoid unnecessary list traffic) then crafted a carefully worded,
> helpful answer, only to find 5 others appear at the same time as mine.  Kind
> of makes one feel like he's wasting his time.  But it's not an excuse to send
> terse, essentally useless answers.

Yes, that has happened to me sometimes and unfortunately (fortunately for the
questioner) some of the other responses were significantly better than mine.  
Oh well.

Anyway, I guess, I don't mind seeing several responses to a question, even 
if they are essentially the same.  First, they tend to each have a little 
bit different tack and give different/additional referrences.  Plus, having 
several people independantly agree adds a bit of confidence.   Something 
missing in the typical newbies world.   That is a little different than
strictly me too replies.

> > But, some of these questions - is FreeBSD really free, etc get frustrating 
> > because it is obvious that the poster didn't even read the first page of 
> > the web site let alone try and look for an answer.  So, a few of the 
> > posted questions deserve a mere yes or no answer.
> 
> I disagree, as Grog's document clearly states: "if you can't think of anything
> nice to say, don't say anything at all" and I consider that list policy.

I agree with that.   I take the time at least to type out the suggestion 
to check the web page, or whatever rather than just say yes or no.  But, 
I can sympathize with the person who does give the smart alec answer.

> I understand your frustration.  As someone who's donated a bit to the doc
> project, and can only _imagine_ how much effort others have put in to the
> high-quality docs that FreeBSD has, I get annoyed when people won't read it
> as well.  But I just suck it up and either post a pointer to the docs, or
> delete it without answering.

A prophet goes without honor in his home    or something like that.
Yup.

I also sympathize with the newbie - more like empathize with the newbie.
A person tends to start from nowhere and doesn't even have a clue about
what is a good question let alone what to do about it.  Seeing all the 
new language and jargon and even worse, initials that AFAIK are commonly 
used in the discussions and even the documentation can make the situation 
even worse.   There are no stupid questions.   (But, there are lazy ones)

////jerry

> 
> >  - this from someone who could more often be accused of giving excessively
> > long answers to even simple questions...
> > 
> > ////jerry
> > 
> > > 


More information about the freebsd-questions mailing list