alt Hacker NewsWhen someone asks me a question that is or should be documented, I like to ask where they looked for it (link or search query).
* Sometimes, this prompt is enough for them to find the answer.
* Sometimes, they tell me a spot that makes sense to them, and I make it have the answer. (Maybe just by adding a cross-reference.)
* If they refuse to look at the docs, I can't help them.
Replies
Macha • today at 1:41 PM
The answer has always been “I asked Bob and Bob half remembered you worked in it once”, without any attempt to look for info, in my experience :(
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Reminds me of the old #bash IRC channel. Asking things found in the tutorials got you either a cold shoulder, or more often, triggered by criptic "32" or "5" from admins - a bot answering your question shallowly and then sending you to a specific site in the tutorial.
You got very good answers to any original questions, though you should start by showing where you searched for answers already.
They hated "do it for me" kind of requests that usually looked like somebody asking you to do their homework assignment. I even got called out on it once, but could happily reply that I'm actually just messing with my system as a hobby.
One time I had a "do it for me" request.
I've run a sed command which appended sth.bak to every file of some type on, but accidently made it execute on all files on the system. They quickly gave me a one liner to fix my machine (a VM, but it took long to set up). However, when after fixing the system, I asked for explanation of the xargs command that was used there, I instantly got sent off to the FAQ with a number.