We're in a net.culture which has turned to the instant
gratification, and people would rather charge into an area and do
stuff than think first. I've had emails about my FAQs where people
have flat-out said "Your FAQ and web site look very detailed, but I
thought I'd just ask you a bunch of questions." My response for most
of the questions was the URL of the site and section/question numbers
where I directly answered those questions. Is looking over a table of
contents and/or using the handy search engine on my web pages frankly
too much to expect of folks? Right now, I'd have to say 'yes', and the
problem's gonna just get worse.
I've almost wished that newsreaders could put up a message on
entering a newsgroup for the first time: "This newsgroup has a FAQ
that answers many common questions. Do you wish to read it now? (Y/y)"
That'd start training people in the habit of looking for archived help
rather than their barging in and asking questions. This may be a
problem caused by newsreaders saying "You have 15,344 unread messages
in this newsgroup" and people looking for the 'catch up/mark all
read/etc' which blindly zaps all messages, including the many that can
help them. Or, some kind of Internet equivalent of a driver's license
that people must get before they're allowed to post for the first
time-- showing that they have been exposed to the basics of how the
net works, and how they're supposed to behave. But, hey, wishful
thinking.
Nathan Mates
-- <*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/ <*> # What are the facts? Again and again and again-- what are the _facts_? # Shun wishful thinking, avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors # think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? -R.A. Heinlein