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

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:02:33 pm Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> OTOH I think as quick as possible an answer is a good idea here.  It
> saves the intended audience the thought about whether to reply or
> not, and an instant, constructive answer says that somebody cares. 

+1

I think that waiting "a day or two" as suggested by Average does nobody 
any good. It doesn't help the poster, who will almost certainly have 
given up by then, and may have concluded that we're stuck-up and rude 
for not answering a polite question. It doesn't help those who choose 
to reply, because we're sitting around wondering if we've waiting long 
enough.

If you consider posting a question to a list without making any effort 
to determine whether it is on-topic or not to be a social faux pas, and 
therefore worthy of a mild rebuke, the longer you wait the less 
effective the negative reinforcement is. Even if you don't see it like 
that, and just want to point the poster in the right direction, there's 
still no advantage in waiting.

But frankly, I think we're worrying too much. What exactly are we 
worried about? As I see it, the worst that can happen is a false 
negative, somebody will say "You've posted to the wrong list" and will 
be corrected by somebody else who says "No, you've misunderstood the 
question, this is the right list". No harm done.


> The message should be "The people who will answer your question on
> python-dev are also on comp.lang.python, as well as many more (you
> may get a faster, and probably more complete, answer on
> comp.lang.python). The people on python-dev don't need to see the
> answer (they already know it), but the people on comp.lang.python are
> likely to be happy to learn it."

We don't need to make excuses for why we don't give the answer here. 
It's enough to give the reason -- it's off-topic for this list, which 
is about the development of Python. That and a pointer to the right 
list is, in my opinion, all we need to say. We don't need to sugar coat 
it -- we're all adults here.



-- 
Steven D'Aprano