On 12/27/05, Jim Louis <lcojiml at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I tend to agree that perhaps more research and trial/error should be put
> forth before sending an email asking for help. Sometimes taking a step back
> from the problem for a bit can help in looking at it in a different light. I
> like to think that part of all this open source is learning how to howto.
> After doing all the research then the questions seem to be more pertinent
> and detailed as well.

I completely agree with you...however...even if someone *does* ask a
seemingly easy-to-answer-with-a-quick-google-search question, it's not
okay to lay into him like Mr. Stohr did.  I understand what Erick was
trying to get at and agree with him, but his delivery was cold and
disrespectful at best.

We all know that the impersonal nature of email makes it easy to slip
into degrading and disrespectful comments.  It would do us all good to
do our due diligence to not let that happen.  We're all intelligent
people and should be able to have civilized conversation.

/me gets off his soapbox.

I'll throw this link into the mix...it's helped me many times
throughout the years:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

-Erik