🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <817432262.4694@housenet.demon.co.uk>
   martin@housenet.demon.co.uk (Martin Leach) writes:
>  But have a bit of compassion on new users though. We were all one

If you look at the people who generally post the redirections, and then 
look at the level of help they generally offer new users in the 
appropriate places (eg .newuser), then I think you'll find that accusing 
them of being unfair is, itself, a little unfair.

> once, and I think you may have felt a bit annoyed when someone said
> please repost to a different group. Okay, so people don't want to give
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I can understand people getting upset at "**** off" type responses (even 
though the evidence is that they often have more effect). But "please 
repost to a different group" isn't exactly harsh. It is helpful and 
polite - anyone who gets offended by such a response really isn't going 
to last long on UseNet. Indeed, I'd be surprised if they survived long in 
*any* community.

> BT anymore money than is really necessary, but a bit of help now and
> again for newusers wouldn't go amiss , now would it??

The simple truth is that "please use demon.ip.support.winsock instead" 
*is* a bit of help. Not only that, but it is usually the *only* help that 
the people being asked are qualified to give - it's all very well saying 
"why don't you just give them the answer", but what if we don't *know* 
the answer? If you ask the wrong people, how can you reasonably expect a 
response? This is a seperate issue entirely from the equally valid point 
that answering such questions inevitably leads to others asking similar 
questions in the same group.

Believe me, this is debated in almost every group, quite frequently in 
many (I'd say at least every few weeks here, for example), and the same 
conclusion is always reached.

If anyone is still not clear of the reasoning, feel free to mail me and 
we can discuss it that way. Those who use this group frequently will be 
sick and tired of the frequent reruns of this debate.

Followups set to poster.

Mark.
-- 
int MeaningOfLife (void) { return 42; }   // mcr@holly.demon.co.uk
function MeaningOfLife :integer; begin MeaningOfLife := 6 * 9 end;