Sadly (as with every other time this has come up and some grand new beginning of wiki/faq/whatever effort seems to spring forth), that never actually went anywhere. :\


Besides, this thread is a helluva lot more helpful.

Yes, I have my signature point to the Google link on the home page of this forum because it's tremendously helpful. But I also am making a point about each participant's relationship to the community.

When someone posts a question about an issue that has been thoroughly addressed already, it lowers the signal-to-noise ratio (to adopt Benson's point) in two ways: it creates more crap to wade through for those who do use search, and it creates more crap to wade through for those who troll through the recent posts either to learn something new or to see opportunities to provide help to those who actually need it.

First, let me say that I believe that (pretty much) no question is too stupid. If someone has tried to understand something and doesn't, or has tried unsuccessfully to find some information, it's great to be able to help him/her. That's different than spoon-feeding someone who is just too lazy, self-important, or selfish to make some effort.

Doubtless, I've posted questions that are stupid or could have been answered by information that was already available here but which I hadn't found. But first I make an effort on my own, and I expect the same of others.

In addition to creating a low signal-to-noise ratio, posts like the one that started this thread waste everyone's time. There are a lot of people here who really give generously of their time and knowledge -- I think I do, and even higher on the list I put General Antilles and Benson and fanoush and anidel and bunanson and brontide and brecklundin and many others. Some of what we do is troll through recent posts seeing where we can be of help. It takes time to do it, and it takes more time when there are posts asking already-answered questions. The moral (yup, I used that word, and mean it in a deep sense) thing to do is not take advantage of that generosity needlessly, because it wastes time that could be better spent and in the long run it burns out the generous and depletes the reservoir of generosity.

Sometimes I answer questions that the poster should have found on his own. Some of the time I think I answer those questions out of habit and because I'm a nice guy; and, afterwards, I feel like it would have been better to have told them how to fish (and to fish) rather than having provided the fish. Answering those questions directly serves to ingrain a bad habit and incrementally harms the forum as a common resource, and I regret when I do that. I think this forum is remarkable, and I feel really fortunate to be able to participate in it, both as a giver and a taker.

Alpha4, I look forward to helping you in the future when you have questions that deserve personal attention, and maybe you'll be helping out me and others on this forum, too, when you know things we don't. (Heck, I've already learned a new word, "precis," though I understand it to be a noun.) But I would prefer you don't act, even unconsciously, like you're the center of the universe.

"But I would prefer you don't act, even unconsciously, like you're the center of the universe." Bit rich from someone who just posted a comment with at least 20 incidences of the word 'I' in, don't you think?

All this talk of fish is making me hungry. Where's that tin of sardines I wonder? Hang on, that empty sardine tin is just the right size for my N800.....

Yes, that was part of the intended humor.

I like turtles.

Me too. Is there maemo LOGO yet? Off to search...

I'm off to have a wank.

Wow, you really like turtles!

I'm equally sorry about mine; so I guess we differ only in as much as I recognized your sarcasm.

Oh, I think we differ in so many ways. Let me count the ways.....