Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!world!geoff From: geoff@world.std.com (Geoff Collyer) Newsgroups: news.software.b Subject: Re: CNEWS MUST DIE! Message-ID: <1991May22.011707.28092@world.std.com> Date: 22 May 91 01:17:07 GMT References: <1991May18.041319.29490@zoo.toronto.edu> <1991May21.180108.22477@rice.edu> Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die Lines: 31 Ben Cox: >This does not display a very good attitude on the part of the authors of >cnews. If you're sick of answering dumb questions, Henry, just hit "U". > >If you write software and pretend to support it (and your presence in this >newsgroup indicates that you are at least *pretending* to support it), >you're gonna have to put up with stupid questions, and answer them either >with a smile on your face or not at all. What twaddle! We don't have to do any such thing. Where do you get these strange ideas? This ridiculous attitude is why I post answers much less often than Henry does: people should not get the idea that I am ``supporting'' C News in this newsgroup. I occasionally answer a question about software that I wrote, but usually only when the answer isn't in our documention yet. I think Henry is far too generous with his time in posting answers to almost every bleeding question in this newsgroup. I've been known to post answers consisting of "See Page XXX in Managing UUCP & Usenet by O'Reilly and Associates" and I think that's the right answer most of the time. There are very few questions in this group that couldn't be answered by reading the documentation for a few minutes. We're programmers, not front-line support people, and we should not be wasting our time answering questions from ingrates who refuse to read the documentation. Even UUNET, who are in the business of supporting people who may know nothing about news, insists that people read Managing UUCP & Usenet *before* they call with questions. -- Geoff Collyer world.std.com!geoff, uunet.uu.net!geoff