Frequently asked questions in these groups deserve a monthly posting

[John Cowan]

In article <21089 at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> sahayman at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Steve Hayman) writes:
>	- examples of what is appropriate for .questions and what
>	  is appropriate for .wizards
>	

I would like to propose a different method of distinguishing between c.u.q
and c.u.w.  It is a long-standing complaint that people post easy questions
to c.u.w because they figure, "Nobody will read c.u.q who has any hope of
being able to answer my question -- after all, it flummoxes me dunnit?"
However, as regular readers/posters know, this is not true -- plenty of
wizard types read c.u.q and reply there regularly.

How about this:  "Do not post to c.u.w unless YOU are a wizard.  Otherwise,
post to c.u.q."  There is still considerable subjectivity in this, but
confronted with this demand I suspect people will think twice about posting
the "remove ugly file name" and "find file in any directory" type questions
to c.u.w, while preserving the "There's an obscure bug in my 4.1-derivative
kernel; anybody got adb patches?" where c.u.q people won't have to be
scared off by it.

It should not be the (perceived) DIFFICULTY of the point -- a total novice
may have difficulty listing a directory -- but the TECHNICAL COMPETENCE of
the requester, that controls where a query is posted, IMHO.
-- 
John Cowan <cowan at marob.masa.com> or <cowan at magpie.masa.com>
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Aiya elenion ancalima!