[CentOS] Help me

Wed Aug 27 16:49:06 UTC 2008
William L. Maltby <CentOS4Bill at triad.rr.com>

On Wed, 2008-08-27 at 12:00 +0530, Sadaruwan Samaraweera wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>  Yes I know what your saying ok! I didn't ask him any descent question
> but I gave a solution based on my experience. So why hell r u guy's
> coming after me

First, don't get offended. If you've been on any/many lists for awhile,
you'll know that time is at a premium for many of the participants and
they tend to give short answers. *And* when someone gives "definitive"
answers based on (possibly incorrect) assumptions (like the problem is
similar to yours, equipment similar to yours, net setup similar, ...)
they are quick to jump in because those answers may lead to severe
damage to the recipient. Sometimes immediate harm, sometimes longer-term
difficulty.

Because of those risks, it is important to try to fully understand (to a
*reasonable* extent, for the time expended) the nature of a problem, its
operational environment, various constraints that may be in place, etc.,
before offering solutions that may be tried. That is why, if you follow
the lists on *good* sites like CentOS, you will often see (I'll
exaggerate now) "My network card doesn't work! Help" followed by various
types of responses saying, essentially, something like "We need more
information" and those responses may ask specific questions.

Solving many technical problems can be difficult even in a hands-on
situation, it's inordinately more difficult to do remotely. As with
*any* resolution process, the first step is to identify the *problem*,
*not* the *symptoms*. Symptoms are clues pointing to the problem. Ergo,
sufficient, but *not* excessive information is a necessity.

*Experienced* people know this and will quickly try to help *educate*
those who don't seem to know this, whether is is the person with the
problem or one responding to the OP.

That's why we are "coming after you". The problem is not "we are coming
after you", the problem is that both the OP and you seem to have been
extremely casual in the problem resolution process and that engenders a
high degree of risk to the OP and none for you. Further it wastes the
valuable time of those who might try to help, both in reading the
original request for help (and then having to ask for even the most
basic pertinent information) and in reading replies that may be offered
that pose excessive risk to those who might use the offered solutions.
So, "education" is in order so that *all* may benefit, including the OP,
the folks who reply and even just those who have to wade through som
many useless posts (and post of the type being discussed ar, at best,
useless).

As long as no one is completely crude, rude and unattractive in their
replies (not always the case), you should take no offense.

My suggestion is you thicken your skin, contribute as you can and desire
to, with *due* *care*, and learn from others as we *all* learn from
others on this list.

> and as you said in the world of IT there are lot of perhaps OK buddy.

I don't know what you mean by this.

> 
> Regards,
> Sadaruwan

I won't even mention top posting or failure to snip text not needed. ;-)

> <snip>

-- 
Bill