OT: rehash: list etiquette, WAS Re: The first appearance of the 7 dwarfs!

[Dave Taira <bodhi_(_at_)_hagakure_(_dot_)_org>]

On Mon, 22 Jul 2002, Nikolaus Hiebaum wrote:

> No, I don't think Miod was "nice." He was rude!

In relative terms, he was nice.

> You people brag about knowing so much and seem so annoyed when someone
> asks a general  question.

A good (well-phrased, well-documented) question gets reasonable answers,
generally. Many of the readers of this list get annoyed when people
A) don't do their homework, and/or B) don't ask good questions.

> I am not saying that you, Diane, are rude, but from reading the list I get
> the impression that newbie questions are dismissed as unqualified for this
> list.

Many newbie questions are unqualified for grade school. They are the
equivalent of "What's the answer for #17?"

> I can very well understand that being asked the same questions over and
> over again *is* annoying, but read over it. Sure, it is healing to vent
> your anger, but there seems too much venting.

I agree there's a lot of venting, but that's because there's a lot of
people who don't do their own homework, and ask poor questions.

> There are no stupid questions but only stupid people who do not ask
> questions!  Nobody is born knowing everything. We learn from being tought
> by others, and we learn from our mistakes we make.

I beg to differ. There are stupid questions, or at least questions
stupidly presented. Wanting a particular piece of information isn't
stupid. Phrasing a question such that even the people who'd want to
help you have nowhere to start is just a waste of time.

> Coming back to Stefan's initial question: I think it would be intersting
> to know if the Snapshots include the patches.
>
> Right, Snapshots are for knowledgeable people, but how to become
> knowledgeable if you don't try out and ask. Maybe there exists a link to
> some webpage that describes what's in the Snapshots? That would suffice.
> No need to write a thesis on the Snapshots' contents and purpose.

http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html
Down towards the bottom, there's a "Structural Layout" section. It says:
.../OpenBSD/3.1/
       Where you find our most recent release.

.../OpenBSD/snapshots/
       For our major architectures, we tend to build mini releases
       of unknown stability and quality about every month or so. This is
       where we place those test releases.

And there's a link just below there to http://www.openbsd.org/anoncvs.html
which mentions the -current vs patch branch sources. And if you continue
to explore, you'll find http://www.openbsd.org/errata.html for patches,
and http://www.openbsd.org/stable.html for the patch branch.

> Politeness is a virtue! :)

This thread keeps coming up and the point I keep coming back to is that
this is a two way street. For the questioner, this includes reading
http://www.openbsd.org/mail.html and following the netiquette instructions.
Follow the instructions, and you'll generally get polite responses.

[ Dave Taira <bodhi_(_at_)_hagakure_(_dot_)_org>                2002.07.22/01:08:47 PDT ]
[ Morlock for Hire                                                       ]
[ What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence  ]
[ of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.            ]
[                                                      -- Sigmund Freud  ]