On Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:08 -0500, "Olin Lathrop" wrote:
> Bob Blick wrote:
> > It has been decided that Olin shall not participate in newbie threads.
>=20
> You have no right to make such a arbitrary decision.

Admins get to use their judgement and when necessary, we do. In this
case we had some discussion and time for debate and there was no
dissenting opinion. You are consistently horrible to newbies. We could
have kicked you out. But we love you and value your voice in other
areas. That last part is from me but there are also others who feel the
same way.

> > I realize that in some
> > ways it is unfair as it singles out one user,
>=20
> Exactly.  There hasn't even been mention of anything I was supposed to
> have
> done wrong.
>=20
> You may not have "liked" what I said or how I said it, but there wasn't
> anything actually wrong with it.  You seem to have missed in all this
> that
> I'm the only one to try to help this guy with his problem, despite him
> making that difficult.
>=20
> Then there's also the issue of what exactly is a "newbie" thread, and why
> newbies are being singled out.  The issue I have is with people is by
> people
> coming here and being rude by not following some basic and self-evident
> rules about how to ask for help from 2000 volunteers.  This isn't
> specifically a newbie issue other than newbies are more likely to do
> this.
>=20
> > but trying to define proper behavior toward newbies
> > leads to rules that offer too many
> > angles of interpretation.
>=20
> Right.  Everyone is going to react differently to different situations.=20
> Let
> it be.  You can't and shouldn't try to legislate only how you would
> react.
>=20
> > I am tired of hearing discussions about the proper way to ask a
> > question. There will always be newbies.
>=20
> Which is why there will always be discussions about the proper way to ask
> questions.  When people get this wrong it will be discussed.  I would
> like
> it not to be necessary either, but that is unfortunately the way it is.
> Trying to squash the discussion instead of the behavior that prompted it
> is
> completely the wrong way to go about it.

There will never be a perfect solution, but there are always newbies
doing the same thing. When a newbie posts something and you make a reply
that is full of irritation, you might be thinking about how newbies
never learn. Other people see your post and wonder why YOU never learn,
that for the newbie, this is all new to him and these are innocent
little mistakes.

It takes a while for newbies to learn the protocols and customs of the
list. There are also protocols and customs for responding. It is better
to stay silent than to respond to a newbie with insults and visible
irritation. That in itself is a "basic and self-evident rule".

Best regards,

Bob Blick

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