[gentoo-dev] Re: When will KDE 3.5 be marked as stable?

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

m h posted <e36b84ee0604031625u2f0580bey7550f34109027db8@mail.gmail.com>,
excerpted below,  on Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:25:56 -0800:

> Diego -
> 
> Thanks for the response.
> 
> Steve-
> 
> Sorry to abuse the list.  Feel free to point me to the correct place to
> post this.  I noticed it in the forums a few times without any answer.

Diego got to the direct answer before I did, but maybe I can help here. =8^)

The Gentoo-desktop list is lower volume and generally where I ask
(developer level) questions about anything so related, KDE, GNOME, burning
CD/DVDs, sometimes sound issues, etc.  Again, that's a developer list not
a general user list, but it's low enough volume and generally friendly
enough to get you the answers you need if it's something (like this) a dev
would need to answer.  (Of course, there are documents that point out a
general policy that's being followed, which you could read and check on
the release dates, but that doesn't specifically answer the question about
KDE 3.5, which is pretty reasonable IMO.)

For general user questions, the /very/ high volume gentoo-user list is
normally the right place.  That and the forums, which you (now) mention
you tried.

BTW, about the "(now) mention" part...  A good general reference is
Eric S. Raymond's essay "How to Ask Questions the Smart Way".  One of the
things it mentions is to briefly mention what you've already tried, in
this case, the forums. This does a couple things.  First, it avoids
needless  duplication with folks telling you about stuff you already
tried.  Second and as important, keep in mind that devs are busy folks,
often as with Gentoo volunteers, and to be effective, they must ruthlessly
sort out stuff that's not efficient for them to do.  Telling them what
you've already tried indicates that you are motivated enough to try
looking on your own first, and that it's therefore not simply a waste of
time to help you, because you are willing to help yourself.  Thus, the
"not a flame" thing was good, but throwing in the "I tried the forums
already and other folks are asking there too, without a good answer" part,
into your first mail, would have been better.

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Essays/smart-questions.html

(One of the other things it says is that if someone spends the time
answering, consider it a compliment, as they consider you worth the time
/to/ answer -- you got past their ruthless efficiency filter.  So...  you
can read back thru the answers and see who considered you worthy of a real
answer and who didn't, and the above might help explain why.  =8^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html


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