Re: Do we need a "Start Here" FAQ on Newusers?

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Steve Summit (scs@eskimo.com)
Wed, 11 Feb 1998 09:50:22 -0800 (PST)

The problem, as ever, is that the people who most need to read
such introductory documents too often don't. The same people
who blithely ignore FAQ lists served on a silver platter will
blithely ignore a well-intentioned "start here" message, too.

Here's an actual newsgroup article from yesterday which
illustrates this attitude all too well:

From: mattsc@sprintmail.com (Matt Chiglinsky)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: program can't read its own data files
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 22:38:07 GMT
Message-ID: <34e2d62c.39616104@nntp.a001.sprintmail.com>

How am I given any guarantee that the FAQ will have the
answer I'm looking for? What if I just waste my time
looking through it? I'm almost always sure to get a
response from a benevolent human who happens to be skimming
through the group.

Fortunately, this is an extreme example (the worst I've seen, in
fact), but this kind of selfishness is unfortunately out there,
and if you ask it, "But what if everyone acted that way", it will
just come back with Yossarian's retort: "Then I'd certainly be a
fool not to."

(But I've been in an excessively negative mood lately, so please
don't let my pessimism dissuade anyone from working on any new
documentation, as it hardly ever hurts.)

Steve Summit
scs@eskimo.com