[Tutor] Comment on http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

[Steven D'Aprano]

On 27/08/13 05:41, bob gailer wrote:
> Hi fellow tutors and helpers. I have a reaction to http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html and I'd like your feedback. Perhaps I will then send revised comments to the authors of the site.

I think you are right. Eric S Raymond is a very smart, very opinionated computer geek, and even when he is trying to be "non-geek friendly" he still writes like a geek for a geek audience. That's one of the reasons I now very rarely link to Smart-Questions, instead I prefer "Short, self contained, correct example".

http://sscce.org/

But really, I want to re-write them both for a Python audience. One day, when I get a round tuit.

Feel free to pass your feedback on to ESR, but I expect he has probably heard it all before and doesn't care. But I might be wrong.

In my feedback below, I'm going to attempt to channel ESR, based on what I know of the man from his reputation and writings. I emphasis that although I am using quotation marks, I'm not actually quoting ESR, I'm putting words into his mouth.



> ---- proposed comments ----
>
> I participate in several Python Help lists. We frequently refer newbies to the above site. I decided to take another look at it today.
>
> I found myself a bit disappointed. Here' s why:
>
> All I see at first is email links and Revision History. If I did not know to scroll down I might have just figured I was at the wrong page.


"If you don't know how to scroll down, I can't help you. There are all sorts of people and places that will teach you the basics of using a web browser, I am not one of them."

"If you are too lazy to read the entire page, you're too lazy to follow whatever instructions we give you, so stop wasting our time."


> Reading translations and disclaimer is not why I'd come here. I also would not have come here to be potentially labeled an "idiot".


"Then you are exactly the sort of person we don't want wasting our time asking dumb questions. Sorry, but harsh truths are still truths. If you cannot follow my simple recipe for asking smart questions, then we don't want you wasting our time and filing our communication channels with your dumb questions. Our mailing lists and forums are for the use of people wanting to get things done, not for the purpose of hand-holding the ignorant, the stupid and the lazy."


> There's a lot of words to wade thru

Writing SMS-speak is not a good way to get ESR to respect your views. (Or mine, for that matter.)


>to get to the heart of the matter - how to ask good questions.
>
> What I'd prefer is a page that starts out with a brief summary of a what a good question. I think many newbies will read that and get the idea.


"It's a free internet, and here in the Glorious USA our forefathers spilled their blood, and that of tyrants, so that you have the inalienable right to Freedom of Speech. And guns. Especially guns. Go ahead and write your own How To Ask Smart Questions the Bob Gailer Way page, and so long as we protect our rights with guns the free market of ideas will choose between your version and mine."



-- 
Steven