How to answer questions the smart way
Kathy Sierra has an awesome post on how communities grow. Her core points are around making new users feel at home and not 'slamming' anyone if they ask a stupid question.
Her post is interesting as it contradicts completely another famous article on a similar topic - Eric S Raymond on 'How to Ask Questions the Smart Way'. I've seen ESR's article linked to a lot and I have a lot of issues with the general attitude of the article - it is never ok to tell someone to 'RTFM' or 'STFW'. It's not tough to type out the answer and gently nudge them to look at the manual the next time.
Personally, I've been guilty of this on a lot of mailing lists, both within Microsoft and outside. A bad habit I would really like to fix :(
Her post is interesting as it contradicts completely another famous article on a similar topic - Eric S Raymond on 'How to Ask Questions the Smart Way'. I've seen ESR's article linked to a lot and I have a lot of issues with the general attitude of the article - it is never ok to tell someone to 'RTFM' or 'STFW'. It's not tough to type out the answer and gently nudge them to look at the manual the next time.
Personally, I've been guilty of this on a lot of mailing lists, both within Microsoft and outside. A bad habit I would really like to fix :(
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Hi,
have been reading yur blog for a couple of days now...:-)...interesting to know information from an insider....;-)...bcoz I would call myself an open source evangelist...but anyways...with due respect to what microsoft stands for..I really appreciate that u are part of both worlds...living day in and day out of the warring worlds...just like me...:-)....keep up the good work!!!!
anyways this comment isnt on anything we vouch for!!!..this comment is pertinent to ur blog article!!!...i am not sure if u were in the JN Tata 750 hall on the 3rd day of FOSS.IN/2006 when there were 2 back-to-back talks on this mailing list issues....by Bernhard Krieger and Fredrick Noronha..infact Bernhard has his PhD thesis based on the FOSS community ...:-)
bye,
Rajesh
have been reading yur blog for a couple of days now...:-)...interesting to know information from an insider....;-)...bcoz I would call myself an open source evangelist...but anyways...with due respect to what microsoft stands for..I really appreciate that u are part of both worlds...living day in and day out of the warring worlds...just like me...:-)....keep up the good work!!!!
anyways this comment isnt on anything we vouch for!!!..this comment is pertinent to ur blog article!!!...i am not sure if u were in the JN Tata 750 hall on the 3rd day of FOSS.IN/2006 when there were 2 back-to-back talks on this mailing list issues....by Bernhard Krieger and Fredrick Noronha..infact Bernhard has his PhD thesis based on the FOSS community ...:-)
bye,
Rajesh
You're incorrect.
If someone asks a question that they could easily have found the answer to by simply typing it into Google, or which is answered in a FAQ included with the (say) software they're asking about, then it *absolutely* is okay to tell them that they've wasted the time of people for no reason at all.
If someone asks a question that they could easily have found the answer to by simply typing it into Google, or which is answered in a FAQ included with the (say) software they're asking about, then it *absolutely* is okay to tell them that they've wasted the time of people for no reason at all.
# posted by 
: 6:29 AM, December 04, 2006
: 6:29 AM, December 04, 2006
I agree completely. I think too many people take ESR's doc to heart. It can be frustrating.
The problem is that we tend to forget that we were all n00bs not too long ago. Even obvious things like writing clearly and trying to google for stuff first aren't all that obvious or easy for that matter.
I guess the rule should be 'If you don't have anything nice to say shut up'.
@anonymous: If you don't want to answer then don't, trust me there will be someone who does. Nobody is wasting anyones time. If it is a wrong group for the query, simply redirect the person to the right one.
The problem is that we tend to forget that we were all n00bs not too long ago. Even obvious things like writing clearly and trying to google for stuff first aren't all that obvious or easy for that matter.
I guess the rule should be 'If you don't have anything nice to say shut up'.
@anonymous: If you don't want to answer then don't, trust me there will be someone who does. Nobody is wasting anyones time. If it is a wrong group for the query, simply redirect the person to the right one.
Rajesh - I'm afraid I couldn't attend day 3 :-(
Anonymous - I don't agree. As a community, it is your job to make someone feel at home. Acting like geek elitists is just bad manners. Imagine back in school, if your teacher scolded you for not looking through the library before asking a question in class. I think it's just plain bad manners - which we geeks cover under this air of 'hacker elitism'. This is not a diss on the open source world - I see a lot of this behaviour in the Microsoft world, both inside and outside the company.
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Anonymous - I don't agree. As a community, it is your job to make someone feel at home. Acting like geek elitists is just bad manners. Imagine back in school, if your teacher scolded you for not looking through the library before asking a question in class. I think it's just plain bad manners - which we geeks cover under this air of 'hacker elitism'. This is not a diss on the open source world - I see a lot of this behaviour in the Microsoft world, both inside and outside the company.
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