Andrew Robinson wrote:
Jeff Vian wrote:
You did not explicitly ruffle my feathers, I was commenting about the general attitude many of the posters here have of "tell me the answer" instead of "where can I find the answer".
The 'mini-rant' was of the attitude that I abhor in many of the younger generation (and even in some of my own generation) in that they expect to have everything handed to them with no effort on their part.
I stand by my earlier comment that we as a whole community should not have to spoon feed information to people. If they are interested and it has a meaniing to them they should have the initiative to go find it, instead of whining because it was not all packaged up for them.
I'm not advocating spoon feeding. However, I think it behooves the developer to provide a minimal amount of information about his project if he/she is posting to a public forum. It just seems polite to me.
Agreed, but it is up to the developer as well. He will get a response relative to the effort he expends.
We agree that a line should be drawn between a the effort expected of a developer to provide information about his project and the effort a user should make to inform himself of that project. We disagree over where that line should be drawn. To me, this is an important argument. Linux is appealing to ever larger audiences, both users _and_ developers. Because of the increase in users, the average saviness is down. Because of the increase in developers, the number of software projects is up. For both reasons, I think developers should provide minimial information about their software when posting announcements to public forums. It would come as a small cost of their time. It would provide a much larger saving of time to the overall community.
In this I agree. I think the one big thing that must be considered is that most users of any OS have been brainwashed by microsoft into believing they can only do what the programmer allows. We need to bait, nudge, and in some cases lead them to the point where they become aware of the freedom and the many choices they have on OSS.
I still feel though that this is not to justify allowing the average user to *ask and be given.* They should use their own initiative and some of the thousands of resources available to find an answer.
There should be no ' rant ' about the lack of information some provide. Responses and education are relative to the effort of the presenter and he attactiveness of the product. In my case, if I am not tempted by the presentation I ignore the product.
If you feel the information given is inadequate you can easily step in to add content and lead by example. A mild reproof has much more effect than a rant. It also avoids confrontation and polarization among those who have strong beliefs in their own way.
Andrew Robinson
