From: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: vmsnet.mail.mx
Subject: Re: Help!!  (New Install of MX)
Date: 13 Oct 1992 00:11:35 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Reply-To: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <00961FC3.519E21C0.26141@CCVAX.CCS.CSUS.EDU>, "John F. Sandhoff" <syssand@CCVAX.CCS.CSUS.EDU> writes:
>
>>> The problem:  I have a bunch of messages in the queue, and none of them
>>> are being distributed...
>
>> Look, turkey...
>
>I realize that seeing the same genre of 'help me' messages becomes rather
>tiring, but we need to remember that there's lots of novices that suddenly
>find themselves faced with a terrifying problem: their mail is STUCK and
>they are suddenly DESPERATE to find a quick fix.

Perhaps I overreacted, but the "genre" of `help me' messages in this case is
someone who pretty obviously hasn't read the appropriate part of the
documentation.  Now, in some instances, this would be excusable, but:
    1)	The standard excuse given when didn't RTFM is that they don't HAVE TFM. 
	Since the MX distribution includes the manuals in both  PostScript and
	plain ASCII formats, this excuse is clearly invalid.
    2)  In some cases, the particular piece of documentation might be rather
	obscure (like trying to figure out where to look to find out how to
	reset the new mail count), but in this case TFM happens to have a
	chapter called "Troubleshooting MX," which tells you how to get a trace
	of what the agent is doing.  It would seem rather obvious that such
	information might have some bearing on solving the problem.
Now, this just happens to be that time of year when you can expect most of the
computer-related newsgroups to be chock full of posts from people who weren't
willing to learn enough about the system they're "managing" to even suspect
what information they ought to provide in their questions.  Something like 20%
of the questions I've seen in such groups for the past month have been from
people who expect an instant answer to a question of the form "This is broken. 
How do I fix it?"  After patiently explaining the same basic fact (we can't
possibly tell you how to fix something if you refuse to tell us what the system
tells you) do literally dozens of people recently, my temper's gotten pretty
short.

>Meanwhile, who wants to volunteer to write the 'ARRGH! My mail is STUCK and
>I need help NOW!' troubleshooting manual that lists what to do, what to look
>at, and what it all means :-)

Matt Madison already provided a manual that tells you how to get the
information necessary to diagnose and fix most MX problems.  What makes you
think that someone who won't read THAT manual would bother to read the one you
propose?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.