[conspire] I get mail

[Tony Godshall]

I'm amazed that you answered him in the first place.

Or even read the message.


According to Rick Moen,
> Just doing a sanity check:  Was I somehow being unreasonable?  
> 
> I get huge amounts of personal mail from utter strangers -- like this
> guy -- who find my e-mail address as co-author of the essay "How to Ask
> Questions the Smart Way" (http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html) 
> and want personal, free-of-charge help with their technical problems.
> 
> This stuff hits me from all over the world, on average half a dozen or
> more a day, every day without end -- and the real irony is that our
> essay VERY clearly says to _not do that_.  That's part of the POINT of
> the essay.
> 
> (Some other mail comes because I'm author of the Linux User Group HOWTO
> for the Linux Documentation Project, but that's typically a lot more
> clueful.)
> 
> Anyhow, I don't think I was the least bit unpleasant in my initial
> three-line reply (in the middle of a busy business day) that he's
> bitching about.  And honestly, do _you_ just try to offload your
> technical problems to people you've never met, without explanation,
> without offer of payment, etc. -- and then act all offended when they're
> perplexed about why you're bugging them?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [I didn't save his original mail, but most of it's quoted here:]
> 
> 
>  From: Rick Moen
>  Date: 28 April 2005 06:18:01
>  To: delghuys at botsnet.bw
>  Subject: Re: News servers
> 
> Quoting [a guy]:
> 
> > I want to get access to Usenet, but my ISP don't give access to
> > newsgroups.
> > 
> > I searched Google for free news servers and it sent me to
> > NewsServers.net.  There I got a list of free ones. However, many of
> > them are only test servers and a lot don't allow posting. Is there any
> > free news servers that you know of, that you could recommend?
> 
> First, I don't understand why you're asking this of _me_.
> 
> Second, that sounds like the sort of question you should ask on Usenet
> itself, e.g., by posting via Google Groups. Sorry.
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 08:59:05 +0200 (South Africa Standard Time)
>  X-Mailer: IncrediMail (2001184)
>  From: [a guy]:
>  To: rick at linuxmafia.com
>  Subject: Re: News servers
> 
> Dear Rick
> 
> Thanks for your reply and I apologize humbly for taking up some of your
> valuable time. I read your and Eric S. Raymond's document "How to ask
> smart questions", so I didn't expect the friendliest answer. I tried to
> state my question in the best possible way (I'm not God you know) but
> still you handled my e-mail as if it was a piece of rubbish.
> 
> To answer your question: I asked you because you seem to be an expert in
> your field ("hackers run Usenet", if I could quote from one of Raymond's
> FAQ s). I enjoyed your article on how to run a successful Linux user
> group, so I thought that I might get a good answer from you. I'm
> disappointed in your rude way of handling my question, but I'm still
> interested in becoming a hacker. So, thank you for your time, I promise
> I'll take my questions elsewhere next time.
> 
> Best of luck on your projects.
> 
> [signed]
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:25:53 -0700
>  From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
>  To: [a guy]
>  Subject: Re: News servers
> 
> Quoting [a guy]:
> 
> > Thanks for your reply and I apologize humbly for taking up some of
> > your valuable time.
> 
> It's not a problem.
> 
> > I read your and Eric S. Raymond's document "How to ask smart
> > questions", so I didn't expect the friendliest answer. I tried to
> > state my question in the best possible way (I'm not God you know) but
> > still you handled my e-mail as if it was a piece of rubbish.
> 
> Actually, I was trying to tell you where you should ask, to maximise
> your likelihood of getting a useful answer.  As such, it was the best
> answer I could give you.
> 
> > To answer your question: I asked you because you seem to be an expert
> > in your field ("hackers run Usenet", if I could quote from one of
> > Raymond's FAQs).
> 
> Unfortunately, I _personally_ have no idea where to find free-of-charge
> news servers these days, but I'm sure the knowledge is accessible _on_
> Usenet.  Thus my suggestion that you ask a collection of people who
> would know, rather than one private individual who, as it turns out,
> doesn't.
> 
> Additionally, the asking and answering of that question would benefit
> the community, in a way that asking in private e-mail doesn't.  That
> point should have been clear from Eric's and my essay.
> 
> As a related point, I spend a _lot_ of time helping people on Usenet and
> in Linux user group mailing lists.  I probably forego untold amounts of
> business income by doing so.  Each time I help someone there, I also
> indirectly help a hundred _other_ people who either read the thread and
> find it relevant to their situations, or find the thread after the fact
> during Google or Google Groups searches.
> 
> Whereas, this discussion accomplishes none of that, and mostly just
> chews up your and my time, going over matters that _were_ more than
> adequately covered in my and Eric's essay.
> 
> So, please ask in an appropriate forum.  I'm sure you're a nice guy and
> I would enjoy your company, but you're defeating your own aim and now
> compounding your original error by making matters worse.  Wouldn't you
> really rather go to people who _can_ help, and stop wasting your and my
> time trying to convince yourself and me that you've been mistreated?
> 
> And, by the way, speaking of courtesy, it _is_ friggin' rude to suddenly
> write to a complete and utter stranger, without even one word of
> explanation, asking that stranger in private to solve your personal
> problem without recompense.
> 
> I didn't mention that the first time, specifically because I was being
> _cordial_.
> 
> 
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-- 

-- Tony Godshall