Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!phri!marob!cowan From: cowan@marob.MASA.COM (John Cowan) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: Frequently asked questions in these groups deserve a monthly posting Message-ID: <693@marob.MASA.COM> Date: 24 May 89 23:26:18 GMT References: <11619@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <21089@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> Reply-To: cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) Organization: ESCC New York City Lines: 28 In article <21089@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Steve Hayman) writes: > - examples of what is appropriate for .questions and what > is appropriate for .wizards > I would like to propose a different method of distinguishing between c.u.q and c.u.w. It is a long-standing complaint that people post easy questions to c.u.w because they figure, "Nobody will read c.u.q who has any hope of being able to answer my question -- after all, it flummoxes me dunnit?" However, as regular readers/posters know, this is not true -- plenty of wizard types read c.u.q and reply there regularly. How about this: "Do not post to c.u.w unless YOU are a wizard. Otherwise, post to c.u.q." There is still considerable subjectivity in this, but confronted with this demand I suspect people will think twice about posting the "remove ugly file name" and "find file in any directory" type questions to c.u.w, while preserving the "There's an obscure bug in my 4.1-derivative kernel; anybody got adb patches?" where c.u.q people won't have to be scared off by it. It should not be the (perceived) DIFFICULTY of the point -- a total novice may have difficulty listing a directory -- but the TECHNICAL COMPETENCE of the requester, that controls where a query is posted, IMHO. -- John Cowan or UUCP mailers: ...!uunet!hombre!{marob,magpie}!cowan Fidonet (last resort): 1:107/711 Aiya elenion ancalima!