Hi Ginni,
A little constructive criticism is always helpful, and your criticism is
certainly of the constructive kind. I'm sure that others as well as myself
will take steps to ensure that we learn from your comments.
It's important to remember that we MVPs are not employees of Microsoft. We
do this voluntarily, and most of us do it out of a sense of responsibility
to the community of developers we all belong to. That said...
But just occasionally, it seems that you think: well lets
just polish of a few before we go home ...
It might seem that way, but you can't assume that is the case for anyone.
For example, I have been putting in 60-hour weeks for the past month or so,
and trying to get a little help in when I can. What little I can is not
entirely appreciated by my wife, who likely thinks of me as a "Rip Van
Winkle" type, not spending enough time taking care of *her.* In other words,
most of us have good reasons for being brief from time to time.
... and rather than give a considered
answer seem to just suggest another website to visit for the answer.
Why re-write the book, when it's a perfectly good book? In addition, when
one points a person to a reference, they are not only potentially answering
that person's present question, but also providing them with a resource they
can use for future reference.
Or, if
you are really bored - give a sarcastic answer.
I wouldn't assume that anyone giving a sarcastic answer is bored. More
likely they are frustrated, for any number of reasons, such as:
1. The question is asked on a nearly daily basis, and always gets the same
replies. But rather than seeing if they can find their answer in the
exisiting messages posted, the individual decides to ask it again. This is
just plain selfish.
2. A person asks a question with half a sentence, and expects a book in
reply. Quite often, this necessitates the painful process of trying to pull
information from the asker, one tooth at a time. Again, this is just plain
selfish.
3. if u cn rd this, ur 2 lazy. Communication is the process of exchanging
meaningful information. Pseudo-hacker slang may be "cool" to children, but
being "cool" doesn't pay the bills. We take time to carefully communicate
our answers; the least a person asking a question could do is take a little
time to write their question.
4. Viloations of netiquette, such as cross- and multi-posting. There are
reasons why these are violations of netiquette, and ignorance is no excuse.
It isn't hard to figure out why these are frowned upon. How may answers does
a person need? We try to help those who haven't been helped yet. But when we
find out they've asked the same question in a half-dozen other places, and
gotten a half-dozen answers already, we feel like chumps. We're not here to
waste our time. In addition, a person will often repeatedly post the same
question, and won't bother to look and see if the original question has been
answered. How many times must we repeat ourselves in order to satisfy
someone's selfishness?
5. When you put up with this (and other) sort of stuff on a daily basis for
years, you occasionally lose your composure and do something you really
shouldn't. Perhaps a little slack is in order. We all want a little slack
from time to time. And we should all give it when we can. As Pink Floyd once
sang: "And when they've given you their all, some stagger and fall, after
all, it's not easy... banging your heart against some mad buggers wall." ;-)
Most of us cannot cope with the tech stuff. we
just want an answer in a language we understand!
Believe it or not, that cuts both ways. We geeks often have as much trouble
talking "user" as users have trouble talking "geek." It's a consequence of
spending too much time with one's head buried in this stuff. We'll just have
to keep trying.
Forgive the moan. , having a bad day!
Hey, slack I can give! Hope your day gets better!
--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
Presuming that God is "only an idea" -
Ideas exist.
Therefore, God exists.
