🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 23 Jul 2018, Andy Valencia wrote:

> Charles Richmond <nume...@aquaporin4.com> writes:
>> He had *no* desire and *no* responsibility to solve
>> other people's problems.
>
> OTOH, if you had a clue but were missing information, he was very
> willing to point you in the right direction.  I'm pretty sure he was
> one of the people who helped when I was trying to grok the ITS symbolic
> system call dispatch code path.
>
One of the weird things about Usenet is that we needed those newcomers to 
drive by the newsgroup and post their basic questions, it put life into 
the newsgroup, but it probably was a bad place for the newcomer.

They come with some idea that they think they know a solution to, and if 
they ask about how to implement that solution, it turns out they may be 
going down a wrong path.  They often don't post the problem.

I've also noticed some people try to legitimize their question, "I'm an 
engineer and blah blah blah", when from the questino it's clear they don't 
know much, but are trying to bluff their way into getting an answer.

I recall a really long thread that was crossposted between 
rec.radio.amateur.homebrew and sci.electronics.design and to either one, 
there would have been a different answer.  But in this case, the poster 
stuck with it, but every time someone suggested something, he'd careen off 
in that direction, getting further from the initial problem.  Much time 
later, he finally revealed what he needed, a simple signal generator to 
test his radio controlled model receiver, and something fairly simple 
would fit.  A lot of time and misdirection went into that thread, if he'd 
read some magazine articles or even a Radio Handbook he'd have been in a 
much better position to start.  He just wasn't "speaking the language".

Some of the reason newsgroups are dying is that those newcomers no longer 
come by, Most never stayed, but without them asking questions, the rest of 
us just sit checking newsgroups to see if anyone has posted.

   Michael