Cat and Mouse (wes Re: Efficiency of using long integers to hold bitmaps)

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 02:58:29 +0000, Bengt Richter wrote:

> I think you are right about some game happening, but I'm not sure it's cat and mouse.
> To me, an incomplete question feels like an invitation to play "20 questions" regarding
> what the real problem is. So I get a little annoyed, and often just bypass the post.
> If I answer, the residual annoyance sometimes leads me to withhold my best guess, and
> complain instead. Hence probably the cat and mouse impression. Not very big of me, but
> OTOH a think a bit of a nudge towards better questions is not a bad thing. OTO3H, maybe
> I should just silently pass up 20-questions invitations and not pollute this pleasant space
> with perfumes of annoyance (since however diffuse, they are apparently pungent enough
> for some to notice ;-)

If it helps, I find the entertainment value of the gentle nudging is the
only thing that makes the smell of stupid questions bearable.

It isn't true that there is no such thing as a stupid question. There are
intelligent questions that are asked in a rude and stupid way.

Expecting people to read your mind and understand what your question is
about is rude. Expecting people to decipher poorly written, badly spelt,
incomprehensible ramblings is rude. (Allowance should be made for those
whose native language is not English, and those with good excuses for bad
spelling, eg broken keyboard, actual dyslexia.) 

Some allowance for the occasional brain-fart or typo should be made, but
communication requires two parties. You wouldn't expect a mail server to
accept any random malformed packets and try to make sense of it, and you
shouldn't expect others to put in more work understanding your post than
you put in writing it.

As they say, be strict when sending and tolerant when receiving. I'm all
for that. But when people insist on sending broken packets, I see nothing
rude about bouncing those packets back with a error message or a creative
misunderstanding.



-- 
Steven