How to tell people to ask questions the smart way

[rusi]

On Sep 5, 4:27 am, Mark Lawrence <breamore... at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> On 05/09/2012 00:05, Ben Finney wrote:
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> > Andreas Perstinger <andiper... at gmail.com> writes:
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> >> On 04.09.2012 11:34, Paolo wrote:
> >>> how do I know if a JTextField has the focus?
> >>> thank to all
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> >> Look there:
> >>http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#forum
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> > That is an unhelpful response. You aren't giving anything to help the
> > original poster improve their question. Moreover, it is rude and
> > dismissive, which doesn't belong in this forum.
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> > The “how to ask question the smart way” essay is not a blunt instrument
> > for beating people over the head with, and it is brutish to use it that
> > way. Instead, please point out *how* the original poster's question can
> > be improved.
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> It is my opinion that the OP got exactly what they deserved, hence I
> entirely disagree with your response.

As a impartial response to what is 'deserved' it is fine.
However...
If we did not make these dicta as a norm
- return unkindness with less unkindness (said in strange terms of
cheeks and coats etc)
- Do unto others as you would have them etc

we would be back in the jungle.

In the context of mailing lists/fora hopefully one needs to
distinguish new post-ers/members from habitual idiots?

And if all this sounds over-Christian see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_principle
Or more in line with python principles, the dilemma
http://chrismdp.github.com/2012/02/on-coding-defensively/