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--- Michelle Zacharias <misheru -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> As a newbie, I am glad to know that there is such a
> list in which warm-hearted people are willing to
> help me when I have questions.
<g>And you found those warm-hearted people HERE?</g>
[SNIP]
> Is it so bad to ask a simple grammar questions and
> so good to discuss the merits of learning tools or
> not
> ad nauseum? Or to vent using an ever-so-misleading
> subject line? (We all need that, so I'm not knocking
> that at all -- just asking for some type of labelling
> in the subject line)
You know, sometimes it isn't the question so much as how the question is posed?
If posters indicate the kind of work they've already done on their own to
resolve their issue (I've looked here, here, and here but I can't find what I
need, for example), their questions are generally well received. Lots of time,
such posters are asking where can I look questions (I've exhausted my
resources. Anybody got any help I don't have?), and I think they get good
responses.
Sometimes, I see a question--like the In/On thread (though I don't want to
imply I know more about this situation; I don't)--and *I* wonder if we aren't
being asked to resolve an office spat. In those cases, the 'right' answer--if
you believe there is one--is less important than getting other people to agree
with you as 'evidence' that you are right and so-and-so is wrong. Another good
one is, "Our organization style guide says so-and-so, but I don't like it. I
want to do such-and-such." (My response is, do it if you want. You are a better
judge of the consequences of your actions than I would be.) So the questions
are sometimes not really about answers so much as supporting evidence for an
already entrenched position. And from the cheap seats--when it comes to
somebody else's job someplace far from my own workplace, I'm in the cheap
seats--they all look alike after awhile.
> Although a newbie, I may know something that someone
> else doesn't. If someone needs that information, I
> hope they are not afraid to ask and that there is a
> forum where they can ask it freely. I forget who it
> was that said, "There are no stupid questions". I
> would like to hope that that spirit is alive and
> well in this list.
Actually, when you have an archive that goes back ten years(?) on a list that
has, routinely, over 3,000 erudite subscribers, there can be 'stupid
questions.' Or at least questions that are inappropriate for the assembled
multitudes. And when it's a question that can be answered by typing one word
into your browser or favorite search engine, that can be a stupid question.
OTOH, if you tell me you are so near the end of the world that you can smell
the fresh paint on the sign saying "Nowhere," and you have a 1947 edition Funk
& Barnhardt Dictionary and a copy of Shrunk & White with every other page torn
out and an Internet connection that takes 45 minutes to download the text on
web pages and can't run search engines and all that stuff, people in this list
will probably make up a care package for you and send it. (I've got some old
references that probably need a good home.) Plus they'll answer whatever
questions you have.
I think the whole point of this thread is that we ALL should respect this
resource called TECHWR-L. Some of us need to be more patient, and some of us
need to realize that every time a question comes up at work it doesn't need to
be asked and fretted over on the list. And some of us need to learn, somehow,
that often times it is the writer's responsibility to make choices and move on
with the work. Most questions of usage can be answered in more than one
'correct' way (unless, of course, you disagree with me, in which case YOU are
wrong <g>). As writers, we are not only empowered to make those decisions, we
are required to make them. It doesn't matter that 25 other people will respond
to the question saying why you're wrong. It's still your job and your
responsibility. If you don't like that kind of responsibility, you're in the
wrong field.
Well, I've wandered and I've rambled. I hope I've added some light along the way.
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