Subject: My replying habits

19. *****
 Q: Why do you sometimes answer so tersely? Why do you not post the
full answer instead of your stupid FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
referrals? Why don't you use email instead of postings?

 A1: When one answers as many questions as I have done on the net,
both on the Usenet news and by email, one sometimes omits the
coating, and concentrates on the essential, for better or worse.
This may convey an unintended impression of unfriendliness, which
most certainly is not my purpose nor my attitude.
   A related matter is that I have often posted or emailed a pointer
to the answer by referring to my Frequently Asked Questions and
other collections or programs, rather than the actual, full answer.
There are several reasons for this conduct, which some users don't
quite like.
   First, I feel that it is better to help people to learn how to
find the answers, than simply feed them. (I'm supposed to be a
professor underneath, am I not? :-). In the long run such know-how
is much more beneficial for the users. (Recall the proverb about
teaching a man to fish instead of giving him a fish). Also this
method has a curbing effect of the same repeated questions
ballooning and filling a newsgroup.
   Second, the pointed information is often much better
and more accurate what one can provide on the fly. It is much more
easy and thus more efficient to give a pointer rather than to try to
remember, for example, the exact name and/or location of a utility
that a user asks for.
   Third, although being very busy most of the time, I can usually
afford the few moments it takes to write a pointer, but I simply
cannot repeatedly afford the time to look for the same full answer,
and then write it. It's hopefully better to give some information
than none at all. Ask yourself which is better. A pointer or no
answer. Of course, there must be a sensible balance between pointers
to answers and giving the full answers.
   Fourth, I get by email many such questions or requests which,
while still welcome, are not fair in the sense that answering them
would take an inordinate amount of effort from my part. A few
examples of such requests. A typical one is that I should manually
uuencode some package and email it to the user. My standard response
is to send the prerecorded Garbo instructions (/pc/link/pd2ans.txt
which also is included in /pc/ts/tsfaqn*.zip). Believe it or not,
some users see it fit to complain about getting the full prerecorded
Garbo instructions from me as a reply to their emailed Garbo related
standard questions. They seem to think that I should devote my time
to an individualized service carefully editing for them exactly the
information they need. Another excessive one is asking me to see on
the requester's behalf what a package's documentation says, or to
test and then describe a particular package for him/her individually
so that the requester would not have to take the trouble of
downloading it to see for him/herself. There are also many other
similar instances where I must refer the emailer to post the
questions to the Usenet news, to refer him/her to other general
sources of information, or refer him/her to a person to whose domain
the question belongs. I am sometimes surprised (and why not
flattered) of the kind of knowledge the users imagine I have. You
really wouldn't believe some of the requests I get, starting from
asking me to send information about hotels in Finland to foreign
students' enrollment pleas, and even about matters I have never even
heard of in my life like locating some obscure German health
products.
   Fifth, don't let my FAQ referrals deter you from posting your own
answers. They are definitely not meant to discourage anyone else
posting one's own answers. As an aside it is interesting to note
that more than once I have encountered posters who recriminate
giving the FAQ reference and pointedly show off with how to answer
the question in full. They might do it a few times, but after a
while they tend to quit answering at all. So much for their initial
bravado.
   Sixth, some users are upset about my posting my answers instead
of emailing them. The drift from the above should be clear. I can't
repeatedly afford the luxury of giving individual guidance. If I
have a pointer I post it at one go, since from experience we know
that the same subjects keep repeating, and the overall effect can
still be the hankered reduction of traffic!
   Of course there is a problem to the pointer or FAQ method which I
often use as an answer to questions posed on the Usenet news.
Someone else may have a much better answer than I do. If s/he
doesn't post it because of the pointer I've made to the FAQ, good
answers are foregone by the users.
   For some more on this subject please see the following items in
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/pd2/tspost17.zip
 "Reducing comp.lang.pascal traffic"
 "Re: A kill file example"
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/pd2/tspost14.zip
 "Advantages and disadvantages of FAQ referrals"
 "Re: what is bandwidth?"
and ftp:/garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/pd2/tspost08.zip
 "Re: "Wasted" Bandwidth"
If someone's legitimate postings are bothering you, also see
 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/doc-net/killfile.zip
 killfile.zip rn KILL file FAQ from Leanne Phillips

 A2: I try to help when I can, but with the amount of email I get
one has to be realistic. Therefore, I very often have to respond to
users with prerecorded messages, FAQ referrals and/or refer their
questions to the Usenet news. Please do not be put off if and when I
have to give you this kind of a response.
--------------------------------------------------------------------