On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 13:53, Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> wrote: > On 5/12/2010 3:45 PM, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote: >> >> You forgot the fifth assumption, that they're too lazy to read man pages, >> howtos, or even google for the answer to their problem, and just expect to >> dump it on us, as though we're tech support from their school, or ISP, or >> corporate - that is, *PAID* support, and we'll solve the problem for them >> and give them the step-by-step, or, better, hand them a script that will >> Fix It All. > > Or sixth, that they had an expected problem and thought they might find > friendly advice here from people familiar with the system. > Well, what he did describe was better than "Help me NOW!" or "Help me please". When someone asks for help they should provide at least two things: 1. The situation; 2. What I tried; Both of those need to be in English. Not text-ese. These should be the minimum requirements to get free help. IMNSHO, Ken Wolcott