JUST GOT HACKED

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, 02 Oct 2013 12:32:57 +0530, Ravi Sahni wrote:

> I find this real confused!! Why they are answering then?!?! As far as I
> can make out everyone who is answering (helping!) doing it frustratation
> and disgust.  But still they keep answering and answering!!
> 
> Makes no sense


If you want to ask why people are answering Nikos' questions, you should 
ask them directly. I won't speak for others, but I'll answer for myself: 
I answer Nikos' questions because:

#1 He is a member of our community who needs help with Python, and this 
is a welcoming community, not an elitist one.

#2 Some of his questions are interesting technical questions, like his 
Unicode problems. I have learnt things from answering his questions. I'm 
sure other people have learnt things from reading those answers.

#3 Even his uninteresting questions deserve answers. Everybody here, I am 
sure, has asked boring or stupid or trivial questions at some stage, 
especially the newbies. Even when the answer is just "This answer is the 
same as last time you asked", the question deserves an answer. This is a 
matter of simple respect. We should treat others in the way we would hope 
to be treated if we were in their shoes.

#4 Explicit is better than implicit. Even if nobody has an answer, or if 
it is off-topic, it is better to explicitly say that we have no answer 
and remove all doubt than to respond with nothing but silence and leave 
open the hope that if you just ask again more loudly someone will answer.

#5 In the long run, encouraging good behaviour is more effective at 
changing people's behaviour than merely punishing bad behaviour.

#6 Consider the first impression of a newbie, joining this community with 
questions about Python. The first thing they see is Nikos asking 
questions, and being ignored, or worse, being abused. Does that send the 
message that we want, that their questions are welcome?


-- 
Steven