Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!iuvax!bobmon
From: bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: A plea for restraint
Message-ID: <21398@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 31 May 89 04:57:35 GMT
References: <11601@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> <14354@bfmny0.UUCP> <712@marob.masa.com> <10338@smoke.BRL.MIL> <14363@bfmny0.UUCP>
Organization: malkaryotic
Lines: 20

tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff) <14363@bfmny0.UUCP> :
-Through several mailed replies and Doug's posting I have come to
-realize that the people who answer C questions in this newsgroup
-probably don't want them arriving in the mail instead.
-		[ ... ]
-was intended to be legitimately useful for newbies.

I might suggest that the questions be mailed to these gurus, but their
answers be posted.  This would disseminate the information without
encouraging the wrong answers.  It might still not please the gurus.

In any case, though, I think the biggest problem is simply that those
most in need of some guidelines are those least likely to be aware of
them, capable of applying them, or inclined to try to follow them.  It's
the old "I'm brand new to the net, so I'll make a name for myself by
proposing that NULL be redefined as (char *)0" syndrome.

How about this for a posting policy:
    Anybody can post, but only approved gurus are allowed to use
    whitespace, capitals, numerals, and the letter `c'.