Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!tale
From: tale@pawl.rpi.edu (David C Lawrence)
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: Telling people to Read The F Manual
Message-ID: <1989Sep25.205459.28308@rpi.edu>
Date: 25 Sep 89 20:54:59 GMT
References: <14695@bfmny0.UU.NET> <130@ubbs-nh.MV.COM> <14729@bfmny0.UU.NET>
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Lines: 18

In <14729@bfmny0.UU.NET> tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) writes:
Tom> Or mail, yes MAIL the guy a kind request to RTFM before posting?

Here is something that many of us perceive to be a big problem with
RTFM postings.  Do you really believe that RTFM is a kind request?  It
is neither; it is an imperative and a rude one at that.  If, for
example, a consultant here was approached with a question and the
client was told to "read the fucking manual", that consultant would
certainly be in more than a little hot water.  What?  The F doesn't
necessarily mean that?  Regardless, it usually does, whether that's
the way it was intended or that's the way it was taken.  There are
better ways to point someone to a manual than using this tremendously
overused acronym.  If you want to be helpful, try being polite too.
Help goes beyond just providing pointers to answers.

Dave
--
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