jim@jpes.com wrote: > I just believe that with the knowledge you have, if someone is really > "clueless", and you > want to improve the PICLIST community, you'd want to spend the time > to educate that person. It seems I'm dammed if I do and dammed if I don't. Silently ignoring parts of a post that I didn't have the time/inclination/energy to reply to doesn'= t work for Russell. Explaining my internal thought process about what goes into deciding what I reply to and how much effort I put into it doesn't sit well with Bob. I suppose "clueless" wasn't a very precise term in that context. I wasn't talking about cluelessness of the technical content but rather about interacting with a group of volunteers you expect a free favor from. More accurately, what I am looking for is attention to detail. In my experience, this is a common trait among all truly good engineers. I don't believe that this is something one can change or learn. Not everyone can b= e helped or will learn a particular topic. I personally chose to spend more effort where I think it may be more useful. My own level of hassle in dealing with the OP also matters a lot, since I'm doing this for free and therefore have no obligation to do it at all. In *my* estimation, those that don't pay attention to detail will not becom= e good engineers, and therefore are more of a waste of time to help. I may b= e wrong, and that may be harsh, but I'm not going to apologize for how I chos= e to spend my free time. It's my call to make, right or wrong, and whether anyone else likes it or thinks its fair or not. Furthermore, I have no obligation to explain my criteria, as even Russell acknoledged. I only did so because Russell put me in a position where not explaining would have lef= t people with the wrong impression. Everyone filters what to reply to and how much all the time. The only difference is I've given you a look at some of my criteria. Nobody has any right to be upset at them, in part because nobody had any right to know the= m in the first place. I understand some may feel insulted when I explain why I did or didn't do something in a particular case. However, they have no right to get upset about internal thoughts. They were always there, just a= s they are with others, the only difference is you now know something about them. Yes, I have my own mental idiot list for the PIClist, just like I have a mental list of "good" people, and I suspect just like most other members have too. Some people can be counted on to say dumb things regularly, or have shown in the past they don't get it too often, or are clearly just not that bright. Others generally say things you can count on being correct, some with easily read styles, some with annoying styles. Just like with an= y group of people you know, you form opinions about their abilities and personalities. However, back to the point. Attention to detail is totally different from knowledge. The less someone takes care in writing a question, the less the= y are worth helping. This has nothing to do with what is being asked about. This does include how well english is used. In part that effects the hassl= e level of reading the post. Poor english is just annoying to read. However= , non-native speakers get a pass on a lot of that stuff since it's a issue of ability as apposed to laziness. That distinction is very important. Even then though, there is no excuse for not following a few simple rules of the language. This includes starting sentences with capital letters and ending them with periods (or question marks, foreign speakers should just stay awa= y from exlamations). Only Jinx can get away with leaving the period off the last sentence of a paragraph ;-) Sometimes, whether known foreigner or not, I may decide I just don't want t= o deal with the poor english. No, it's not fair. It's not the OP's fault no= r could he have done anything to fix it. Sometimes annoying is still annoyin= g and that wins out. It's my free time. This is the way the world works every day. Don't get upset just because somebody points it out. ******************************************************************** Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, http://www.embedinc.com/products (978) 742-9014. Gold level PIC consultants since 2000. --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .