Xref: utzoo comp.misc:2524 comp.unix.questions:7407 comp.unix.xenix:2389 comp.sys.ibm.pc:16144 Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!gatech!mandrill!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-sally!nather From: nather@ut-sally.UUCP (Ed Nather) Newsgroups: comp.misc,comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.xenix,comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Questions without answers Message-ID: <11967@ut-sally.UUCP> Date: 5 Jun 88 19:59:21 GMT References: <50@uisc1.UUCP> Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas Lines: 29 In article <50@uisc1.UUCP>, root@uisc1.UUCP (Super user) writes: > I would like to air one gripe that has been steadily building [...] > > The trend is to ask a question, and then to finish it by saying "Please > reply to E-mail/private mail as I am too busy to keep up with this > conference/newsgroup." > > I find that often I have the answers to questions I read, but when I > see the above request for private replies, I don't bother to reply to > the question, private or public. I never reply either, for exactly the same reasons: if the questioner is too damn busy to read the newsgroup and watch for replies, then I am damn well too busy to bother with the question. I can find no excuse for this behavior, so I don't excuse it. If the article is a request for software, and I happen to have it handy, then I will mail it off to them -- but that's not the point here. The point of the net is information exchange, not private collection. (Can you say self-righteous? ... Guilty as charged.) -- Ed Nather Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin {allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather nather@astro.AS.UTEXAS.EDU