I agree, it's rude, and usually if the person knew where to look, they
wouldn't have asked. As I have said before a major difference between
the tone of this list and freebsd-questions is the frequency of "RTFM"
and "PLEASE WRAP TEXT AT 72 CHARACTERS" answers, which are far more
frequent there than here. Like, how hard is it really to read
unwrapped text? I manage in absolutely any mail client I use...
There's this attitude some people have that it is beneficial to pore
over irrelevant documentation for hours, trying things that don't work
as frustration mounts. What it really is is a waste of time. It's so
much more efficient to ask a quick question and get a quick
answer... hey, it's kinda like open-source itself, information wants
to be free... and you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. As
long as there are obstacles to finding out which information is
relevant, we'll need this kind of help. And as long as most people
oblige others, and the implicit collective contract is fulfilled, we
have an optimal equilibrium.
C
--
Corvin Russell