Structuring this newsgroup (was Re: C question [RTFM])

[DAVID NEWALL]

In article <14866 at dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> ari at eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ari Halberstadt) writes:
>[stuff about someone not knowing Dennis Richly (sic!)]
>
>Look, maybe we should create a "comp.lang.c.beginner" group or something.
>I'm getting tired of reading these endless questions like "what's a comma
>operator?", why do we have a main function?, how do I post to this network?

Ari sounds like someone who has forgotton what it is like to be a beginner.

I agree that naive questions can get boring.  Certainly, too, the information
can often be found elsewhere.  But let us not forget that one of the purposes
of the net is to ask and answer questions.

I say: If you find a stream of conversation uninteresting, then you can do
something about it.  You could unsubscribe to the news group (although that
seems like overkill); you could put the stream into your kill file.  You
could *answer* the question at issue.

Saying: "Let's piss them off to a beginners group" is not the answer.  In
fact, it's decidedly unfriendly.

Let's be brutally honest here, and admit (to ourselves) that just about
every single question asked in this forum is going to seem naive and boring
to someone.

My flamish advice:  Get off your high horse; you ain't so perfect, either.


David Newall                     Phone:  +61 8 343 3160
Unix Systems Programmer          Fax:    +61 8 349 6939
Academic Computing Service       E-mail: ccdn at levels.sait.oz.au
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