Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Re: rhythmbox plays silently

[Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk>]

On 28 Mar 2008, at 22:01, Hal Martin wrote:
> Michael Schmarck wrote:
>> Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Now, onto your actual problem. It is exceptionally hard to even  
>>> attempt
>>> to provide a solution unless someone else fixed the exact same  
>>> problem
>>> before, as you have not provided any configuration at all and very
>>> little useful information.
>>
>> What would you have wanted to see? I wrote that sound works. You
>> don't need more information.
>>
>>> Hence your post was as much noise as mine
>>> was.
>>
>> That's why other people, or at least Andrey, was able to help,  
>> where as
>> you were just a moron.
>
> Not to dig up this unpleasantness again, but there are some things I'd
> like to point out for future reference (for all people, including me,
> who will post questions with hopes of getting useful answers.)
...
> Great, and now you've noticed that Totem, another GStreamer program,
> isn't outputting sound. Therefore, instead of just blowing off the

> previous poster, you could actually include that information.

Hi there,

I, too, thought about saying something like this at the time. I'm  
glad you have done so and I agree with all your points.



Michael:

Alan's reply was harmless. You're not entitled to pick on him unless  
you posted correctly in the first place.

You're asking for help - provide as much information as possible and  
please don't antagonise people (especially because they may be able  
to help you!).

If you want help then it's YOUR responsibility to provide as much  
information as possible. Help people to help you, and make it easy  
for them to do so. Providing a dearth of information requires  
respondents to type more, making suggestions which accommodate all  
the possibilities which you've failed to eliminate.

Oftentimes, just making the effort to demonstrate your problem  
correctly - for example showing permissions with `ls -l /dev/audio`  
and `grep audio /etc/group` - will show you the problem lies. You'll  
slap your forehead, curse yourself, take a little pride in having  
solved the problem yourself, learn something, and save you troubling  
others with your problem.

Othertimes making a post can take hours, compiling relevant  
information from a terminal window. But I speak from experience when  
I tell you that this may provoke a very quick response which  
immediately diagnoses your problem and provides a resolution that can  
be applied in minutes.


I, too, know what it's like to receive a reply to one of my questions  
which I find to be unhelpful and aggravating. However, "two wrongs  
don't make a right" and no-one benefits from an angry response.

Stroller.
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