[Mailman-Developers] "How to Ask" -- reading list for GSoC students, part I

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

I don't mean to single out a particular student, or even students in
general.  We've all done this early in our careers.  That said,

 > What can it be that I may be missing which is preventing me to
 > query the table. Really desperate for any hep on this :) Thanks...

is a poor problem report.  We shouldn't have to guess so much, or have
to ask for simple things like "show us the code".  Please read

http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

The advice about how to communicate your issue in ways that get useful
answers fast in that page (and in several linked pages) is very good.

Eric and Rick (the authors) show a lot of attitude (and they do in
real life, too! :-), which you generally won't see on this list and
definitely not on mailman-users.  But there are places where you will
see the "snappy answers" style of response, or "desperate" queries
that go completely ignored, as they describe.  (One of them is
graduate school, in case you're thinking about getting an advanced
degree!)  It's good to get in the habit of writing well-formed problem
reports early.