[sf-lug] correction/clarification/(un?)helpful/intention/attitude/ ???

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Daniel Gimpelevich (daniel at gimpelevich.san-francisco.ca.us):

> On Mon, 2015-12-21 at 21:43 -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
> > 'Not lifted a finger at all' referred to Daniel not having lifted a
> > finger _to help_.  To review:
> 
> My very first message in this thread gave Maestro the suggestion which
> eventually solved his original problem.

Indeed it _apparently_ did, through a good educated guess, because
Maestro hadn't posted adequate data.  And strictly speaking, nobody but
Maestro yet knows if his problem got solved, because he's never followed
up to say 'Thanks, that worked' or 'I still have symptom [x]'.

> You then chimed in with a wealth of mostly correct information, only 
> a fraction of which directly addressed his issue.

Specifically, the bottom-line bit where I said 'I'm betting that
the correct firmware BLOB file for the Xpress 200M file is going to be
/lib/firmware/radeon/R300_cp.bin, and that Debian supplies that BLOB in
package firmware-linux-nonfree .  So, install that package.'  That
'fraction'.

Anyway, my major aim actually isn't to solve strangers' / semi-strangers'
problems tersely, but rather to use such problems as a vehicle for teaching
troubleshooting and handling ongoing issues including hardware support.

So, my answers are necessarily broader than the request asks.
To my way of thinking, giving the solution and an understanding of how
you got there and why it works beats just giving the solution.  Your
mileage may differ.

> Your doing so was exactly the kind of "value add" Michael is talking
> about.

Not sure about that.

> Shortly thereafter, the roles reversed, and you were giving the
> primary helpful info while I switched to the asides, and that is where
> Michael took notice. You stated that this behavior discourages you
> from involving yourself at all

To be honest, that doesn't sound like what I said.  But no matter:

The more important bit:  Please don't doubt that your contributions are
valuable, as they most certainly are!  That's much more important than
small passing annoynace.