The grand-daddy of Usenet/Forum FAQ's...please give me your opinion ...

[Ron Prestenback]

Hi guys,

I have been following the works of an old-school hacker by the name of Eric Raymond for quite some time. I first ran across his name while searching for resumés to template the "Technical Expertise" part of my resumé from. He has a quite extraordinary resumé, BTW. If you're interested after reading everything else, try doing a search for his name on the net.

He recently wrote a FAQ geared towards those new to support forums and newsgroups. The FAQ is written from the standpoint of a hacker (and here we define hacker according to the official presently accepted definition -

A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their
capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.)


Now that that's out of the way, I find this FAQ to be one of the most well-thought-out, informative, and to-the-point documents about any part of the Internet, period. It applies not only to those wanting to ask questions in forums, but seems to (although not written to) establish a new standard for interacting online. I was thoroughly impressed by the candid and exacting manner in which he conveys his "words of wisdom".

The version I found was included as a preface to the FAQ for "The SmoothWall Project" (formerly known as "The Linux Router Project"), and if you are interested, per the author's request, I have included the copyright page, which includes links to this project, as the first page of the FAQ. I extracted the Preface from the rest of the document, but if you would like to view the rest of it, simply click the on link on the first page.

It is written in the manner of a seasoned hacker teaching Joe User, but the message applies to any person out there attempting to inquire about anything via non-pay support forums (this means US!) I personally believe EVERYONE should be required to read Eric's FAQ before they can even register to post in a forum. (OK, maybe I'm being a little facetious, but you'll see what I mean after you read it.) Well, anyway, it's here:

<a href="http://members.home.net/rprestenback/Smart%20Questions.pdf" target="_blank">Posting FAQ by Eric Raymond</a>

And, if you read the document, you may even recognize my new tag

[Pinnacle]

Yes, that was a good read. And I agree, it is something many people on the Internet should read. Thanks for posting it.

[Ya_know]

[quote]Originally posted by Ron Prestenback:
<strong>...I personally believe EVERYONE should be required to read Eric's FAQ before they can even register to post in a forum. (OK, maybe I'm being a little facetious, but you'll see what I mean after you read it.) Well, anyway, it's here:

<a href="http://members.home.net/rprestenback/Smart%20Questions.pdf" target="_blank">Posting FAQ by Eric Raymond</a>

</strong><hr></blockquote>

I couldn’t agree with you more. Although I always thought I had a fair and respectable presence, I found several flaws in many of my posts. I will be one to admit that I learned something from that article. Thanks!

[Sunshine]

I also agree. Being new here myself, I certainly hope I haven't come across as rude or ignorant. But, then again, there's always the future. I'm sure I'll do a major faux-pas sometime soon. (sorry in advance )

[twelve]

Synchro-freakin-icity I say.

I just read through that about a week ago when I was working on a smoothwall project. I agree, everyone should read it, whether new or old at posting questions and such.

This is off topic but the smoothwall VPN stuff is pretty sweet too.

[Ron Prestenback]

[quote]Originally posted by Ya_know:
<strong>

Although I always thought I had a fair and respectable presence, I found several flaws in many of my posts. I will be one to admit that I learned something from that article. </strong><hr></blockquote>

Hey don't worry! I think that many of us "old-timers" lose focus of minor points and things to keep in mind, over time. I know that I have been guilty of not always providing as much information as I could usually because I didn't think it would apply. This article helped me realize that by doing so, I am making assumptions about a problem that I'm having; the problem with this is that if I need to ask someone else for help, *perhaps I don't know as much as I think I do* and I should post ALL relevent information, as it just may provide the information needed.

Education is never going to be a destination - always a journey. The day we stop learning is the day we die.

Ron

[Stalemate]

Very interesting reading - thanks!

I'll be more careful in my posts and will continue to RTFM and STFW

Maybe we could incorporate this in the forum rules as recommended reading?

Eric's comments on questions which were obviously not previously researched (lazy luser) certainly struck a chord with me.