From: mdchaney@fractal.ucs.indiana.edu (M Darrin Chaney)
Subject: Re: Flaming
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 14:59:10 GMT

CTANSKI@ONONDAGA.BITNET (Chris Tanski) writes:
>I've had to read this shit for the last week or so and I'm getting kind of
>tired of it. I signed on to this list to learn more about VAX/VMS and I'm not
>doing that.

I'd ask for my money back.

>The description of INFO-VAX in the GLOBAL LIST file from Listserv
>mentions nothing about the type of postings that can be sent to the list. It
>doesn't say you need to be an expert or anything like that yet certain people
>seem to think so.

What certain people?  Nobody here has said that you have to be an expert to
post.  As a matter of fact, it's rare that someone gets flamed because they
weren't an expert.  It's usually because they posted "my program crashed,
what went wrong" without providing code, real error messages, or anything.
It doesn't take an "expert" to realize that a person like that can't be
helped (unless they call the Psychic Hotline and pay $4/minute).

>Now I own a list and my general policy is after flaming
>someone twice you get removed from the list. I'm surprised certain people
>haven't been removed yet or signed off themselves.

Some of us aren't on the list.  We get this via a newsgroup.  Therefore, the
chances of us being removed are exactly the same as the chances of our
newsfeed going away.

>If I flamed somebody like
>some people do I'd be embarrassed because I acted like such a jerk.

I agree that some people act like jerks (this is the single point of yours
that I agree with).

>Why can't
>you guys just answer the questions or calmly ask the person to provide more
>info. I don't believe you flame people for not giving enough info. Maybe they
>don't have more info. and that's why they're sending in the question| Ever
>think about that?

You obviously haven't read too much on here.  People often say "my program
bombed with an error", but fail to give the error text.  Do you think they
had more information?  (if you answered "no", your hopeless)  If people don't
have any more information to give, they don't get flamed.  But, when they
ignore the error messages, etc., nobody here can provide them with help.

To add insult to injury, alot of people ignore polite requests for more
information and just repost the same stupid question.

Then there are people like you who have never even thought about considering
thinking about answering a question or providing information yet find it
perfectly okay to complain about the content of the group.  I'll not comment
further, as I'm sure Carl will have some kind words.

>Chris Tanski
>
>Feel free to reply directly if you have something to say about the above.
>
>ctanski@onondaga.bitnet   OCM BOCES
>captanski33@snycorva.cortland.edu   SUNY Cortland
>ctanski@nyx.cs.du.edu   Denver University
>ag244@yfn.ysu.edu   Youngstown State University

	Darrin
-- 
M Darrin Chaney, Senior Database Programmer, University Computing Services, IU
mdchaney@indiana.edu             1000 E 17th St.             Work: (812)855-5492
mdchaney@iubacs.bitnet           Bloomington, IN 47408       Home: (812)333-6311
"I want- I need- to live, to see it all..."
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms