[Python-Dev] Python-dev signal-to-noise processing question

[Terry Reedy]

On 7/20/2010 6:59 AM, Oleg Broytman wrote:

>     I know, the task of sending answers like I've sent is quite
> unappreciated.

*I* appreciate it. I mostly do not respond to such because I expect you 
or Aahz will.

> I know, the meaning of my answer is rude because, in short,
> it's simply "Please, go away", and however I stress the "please" part it's
> still "go away". If I were a help seeker it'd be quite a hard blow for me
> to receive such an answer. Yes, I know.

1. I suggested one improvement to the canned response in my previous 
post: expand 'using' to 'using or understanding'.

2. Here is another: mention that Python developers who are willing to 
answer non-development questions already participate on 
python-list/gmane.comp.python.general to answer such questions there.

3. That brings up: also mention gmane.comp.python.general, for those 
like me who prefer the newsgroup interface.

4. Alexander Belopolsky wrote:
"People dislike canned responses no matter how friendly and polite they
sound.   I believe python-dev tradition is to redirect the poster to
python-list but still include at least a hint to what the answer to
his or her question is."

I believe you *did* do that, but it was easily missed. So: end the 
boilerplate with
-------------------------------------------------------------

and put hints here so they stand out.

>     Still, two other alternatives are even worse. The first alternative is
> to not answer "using" questions at all; quite rude. The second is answer
> all questions and make the developers quit the list and found a new quiet
> one.

I brought up that same possibility.

>     I don't see any other alternative, do you? Of those three - which one
> do you prefer?
>     The original question was about using python, that's my understanding.

I agree that it appeared to be, but it was phrased in terms of 
understanding its operation, hence the claim that it was not, and hence 
suggestion 1) above.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy