Discussions and developing

[Nick Perkins]

The newsgroup is a bit like an evolving ecosystem.  A certain balance is
achieved by the fact that really dumb questions generate fewer and shorter
responses, while really interesting ones generate more and longer responses.
In turn, the level of response may influence whether (and how often) similar
questions are asked in the future.

It's a bit like 'survival of the fittest', and a bit like 'supply and
demand'.  Newbie questions get asked because newbie questions get answered.
This may be boring for experienced c.l.p readers, but I think it is a good
thing.  When I was a newbie I learned a lot from reading this ng, often such
'newbie questions', even if the answer was just a link to the faq or docs.
We have to keep in mind that the 999th person to ask the 'compiler question'
does not know about the previous 998 people, and should not be treated as if
they had asked the question themselves 998 times.  Fortunately, the generous
clp readers do seem to understand this, and I am proud to be a part of a ng
that embraces newbies, and tolerates such frequently asked questions.

These days, I usually skip the newbie questions, but then I also skip lots
of other stuff that doesn't really interest me.  In fact it is easier to
skip over dumb questions than it is to skip over dumb answers to good
questions (which are much more numerous).  Skipping over the newbie
questions is no more effort than skipping over any other question that
doesn't interest me.

Besides, taking a quick scan of the current postings, I see very few 'dumb
questions', and a lot of very specific and intelligent questions.  You would
have to purposely seek out the dumb questions amongst the good ones just to
get upset about it.  If the "compiler" question comes up once per day out of
hundreds of messages, it's no skin off my back.  And if someone wants to
answer the "compiler" question (or 5 people), then let them do it.  Less
work for the rest of us.  What is not productive is getting all upset about
such questions and going out of one's way to reply with "you should have
read the faq", when the question has already been answered.  If you don't
like dumb newbie questions, don't answer them.  There is no point getting
upset about such a small percentage of all postings.

Final point-- Python is supposed to be 'programming for everyone', and to
that end, it is important to know what the most common newbie questions and
mis-understadings are.  The frequency of the "compiler question" should be
taken as a hint that the topic requires more prominence in the
documentation.  You may say, 'but it's right there in the faq!', however
numbers don't lie.  If the question is asked so often it's not becuase the
newbies are dumb, it's becuase the question is one that naturally occurs to
newbies.  It's better to know what the newbies are wondering about, it helps
to improve the docs and the faqs etc.