How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

[Lori Nagel]

I think it is very hard on newbies and
drives people away from using free software. I remember as a newbie,
reading things for hours, trying to look something up, not finding
the information, not even knowing what to ask or how to ask it. I
would read things, not understand them, and then ask questions. I
remember going to some irc channels on freenode where I would get
RTFM. The problem was I didn't really know enough about the subject
matter to ask smart questions. It took me half a year just to figure
out how to add the math library into the compiler so I could compile
some basic C programs from one of the C programing books I have. I
finally managed to learn it by finding a pdf copy of the Intro to GCC
book. 
So basically, it is a document that
expects people to have more knowledge than they may actually have. I
don't think it is necessarily bad to try to
ask smarter questions. I think the problem is when it becomes an
exercise in newbie bashing where the so called fine manual is 
nowhere to be found. 



----- Original Message ----
From: Bruce Dawson <jbd at codemeta.com>
To: Lori Nagel <jastiv at yahoo.com>
Cc: gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
Sent: Fri, October 9, 2009 8:40:44 PM
Subject: Re: How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

OK. I'll bite.

What aspects of that document do you not like?

--Bruce

Lori Nagel wrote:
> For no particular reason, I will say I do not think very highly of that document. 
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Kevin D. Clark <kevin_d_clark at comcast.net>
> To: Greater NH Linux User Group <gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org>
> Sent: Fri, October 9, 2009 12:38:52 PM
> Subject: How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
>
>
> For no particular reason, I will mention that I think that this is a
> really good document.
>
>   http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
> I hope that others enjoy it as well.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> --kevin
>