Re: [fetchmail-users] Fetchmail Socket error on asatellite connection

[Rob M. <rob...@gm...>]

On 4/13/07, Steve Sheftic <ker...@si...> wrote:
>
> You and Rob are very helpful and very patient people. Perhaps you guys
> are a bit too subtle

You know, that's the first time in a long time anybody has said I'm
either subtle or patient :-)

> and offer a bit too much advice before someone
> provides the necessary information. I follow most of the threads here
> and I suspect that your subtle hints about reading the FAQ get lost
> among all the helpful ideas. I think a polite, to the point, statement
> such as "Please provide the information requested in the FAQ
> (http://www.fetchmail.info/fetchmail-FAQ.html#G3) and we will be happy
> to help you" and *nothing* else, would get the point across without
> making the neophyte feel unwelcome.

Your point is well made, and I am sometimes tempted to simply take
that approach.  The trouble is that a simple, (and often a repeated),
"provide this or we won't help you" and "it's in the FAQ" leads to
people not asking for help and having a negative view of the product
(see the likes of the clamav-users list where that approach has
resulted in long flame wars).

I'd also say that the FAQ probably needs some updating to make it more
friendly.  Right now some of the information isn't complete (for
example, with reference to socket errors it only refers to PPP
settings) and some is probably out of date (refers to RedHat 6.0 as
"recent", released AFAIK in 1999).  The G3 section also refers to
reporting a bug, which likely leads people to ignore it when reporting
problems.  Finally, it is a single page document and a pretty big one
at that.  Even I often get frustrated trying to work through it, so I
may discuss with Matthias my attempting to make it more usable.

There's also sometimes a language barrier where people just don't
understand what's being said because English isn't their primary
language (and given that that's the only one I understand, I'm limited
to using it).

I think however I will, like Matthias, end up having to take a
somewhat harder line about helping people who don't/won't listen.  It
would be a shame however - I've been that clueless newbie and know how
much of a difference it makes to have somebody patiently lead you
towards enlightenment :)

Oh, and thanks for the comments - it is useful to have that outside perspective!

-- 
                 Please keep list traffic on the list.

Rob MacGregor
      Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he
        doesn't become a monster.                  Friedrich Nietzsche