[ale] Insolence of those asking for FREE help on public lists

Jeff Hubbs Jhubbs at niit.com
Wed Aug 9 17:46:45 EDT 2000


I responded to someone on Usenet who was trying to ask a reasonable question
of some kind, but her question didn't really make any sense.  Another guy
and I both responded, trying basically to sort her question out, but she
didn't respond.  Out of curiosity I e-mailed her a few weeks later to see if
she had gotten any help and she said was very much put off by the responses
she got on Usenet.  It turned out that she was a newbie in the sense that
she didn't have a valid abstraction for "The Internet, "network," "system,"
"operating system," etc. in her head yet, and that made her question
nonsensical.  One thing that had contributed to her problem is that the "lay
press," ad copy, and other informational bombardment had filled her mind
with catchy but flip statements like "UNIX is the backbone of the Internet"
and so on.  She was trying to use terms like "Linux network" and extend
their literal meaning.

So, she was kind of an example of what Jeremy is talking about - someone who
goes into an appropriate forum to ask for help, doesn't get an answer
because the question isn't answerable as is, and gets kind of "insolent."  

I chalk it up to frustration.  It turns out that this woman, who had no tech
background, was trying bravely to obtain one in the course of achieving a
goal which required it (running a Web biz from home, in this case).  Running
Web businesses sounds like a wondrous thing to a great many people, but
those without the megabucks to ring up iXL, NIIT, et al. and just say "DO
IT!" find that it's a little like deciding on a lark that you want to get
into SETI because you saw a cool show on the Discovery Channel, and then you
find that it's not trivial to build a radio telescope in your backyard.  I
think the lay press does a lot to put unreasonable expectations into people
minds (including the IBM ads with Avery Brooks telling you that your
software had better be able to handle multiple Libraries of Congress per
second).  Yes, a good narketie/bizzie/techie CAN set up a good and
successful e-commerce Web server at home on a shoestring, but he/she sure
would have to know a HECK of a lot...

- Jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeremy T. Bouse [mailto:undrgrid at toons.UnderGrid.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2000 10:14 AM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: [ale] Insolence of those asking for FREE help on public lists
> 
> 
> 	In the many years I've been working with Linux as a 
> beginning newbie
> and throughout the years of learning and in turn helping 
> people freely as I
> had been helped I find it terribly disturbing that there is 
> still a high
> number of people that don't understand Linux yet know enough 
> to find the
> mailing lists to seek help yet show complete and utter 
> insolence to any help
> they receive by replies like "your advise is not worth 
> anything over here"
> when they obviously had a problem which prompted a posting to 
> a public list
> and advice was freely given...
> 	I've even seen this response from other interactions 
> during face to
> face encounters where they ask someone they think has more 
> knowledge and
> insight into a problem but once you assist them they suddenly 
> have this vast
> knowledge and discount anything you say on the matter... What 
> is it that makes
> people behave this way I don't know... And probably never 
> will... I guess
> that's just how some people choose to live their lives...
> 
> -- 
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> | Jeremy T. Bouse  -  UnderGrid Network Services, LLC  -   
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