Re: Why questions don't get answered, or "No, I've already ...

Joao, it's best to see if you can answer the question yourself, first.
Several hints have been published in this thread for such lookups. I
suspect a quick google on the list URI for your question is the best
first step if you have not been reading the list regularly for several
months. The deadliest thing you can do is ask about a question that was
discussed to death in great gory detail just the preceeding week. {^_-}

Then after at least a modicum of effort to answer the question for yourself
ask the question with adequate detail so that we can avoid the almost
inevitable "that depends" answer which is about as useless as the RTFM
answer we're on about in this thread. For example if it's a mail server
question state what you are using or attempting to use: SendMail, PostFix,
Exim, <shudder> Qmail </shudder>, FloobyDust or whatever else. I for one
tend to ignore the "Mail doesn't work" questions with no details on WHAT
doesn't work. I try to help with some SpamAssassin questions. But I admit
freely I use it with fetchmail and procmail. I have little experience with
other modes of usage. (I don't even route the mail through a mail server.
Fetchmail tosses it into the mail queue directly.) So if I see a question
I can answer because detail is present and I happened to look at it then
I answer as best I can. So few message titles, of late, have inspired me
to dig into the emails to see if they are something I can help with. I
get about 1000 emails a day. A third or so of them are spams. They're gone
quickly. Some are on the list of "always read and if I can answer." Others
are "usually read and make a smart a** reply and sometimes a thoughtful
one." (Hey, they're NOT serious lists. {^_-}) Others require heavy triage
before I can get to them. LKML I scan to get the drift of what is going
on. (Like Dave Jones (FC) has a kernel ready to push to test but can't
because somebody broke udev in a way that affects userspace. And the udev
guy is on vacation.) That leaves this list and a couple others that
get triage with some answers. Thoughtful answers take a lot of time.
So I look for ones I can give GOOD answers for at the same time they
are thoughtful and useful. In short, ask GOOD questions with clear
titles about what's the key problem, NTP, VNC, SMTP, IMAP, KDE,
and so forth. There is NO hope a no title message will get looked
at. There is slight hope a message with no good keywords in the subject
will get looked at. Good questions do get looked at and get answers,
from somebody if anybody can help. Really well done questions get
good answers because it leads the trouble shooters with experience
among us right to the detail you missed. That helps you and us.

{^_^}

Time to time lists need to express this way their feelings...

There are several reasons to post a question:
- newbe
- no web, just email
- trust in list
- other reasons