Plea to newbies

I post this, or something very like it about once a year. It seems to be overdue. This is addressed mainly to newbies, but we are all guilty of doing it occassionally, so all should at least remember that they read it last year ;-) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE: When you have a problem that you cannot solve and you decide there may be someone in the greater Informix Community who can help you, please DO NOT post the solution you tried and could not get to work asking us "How do I make this solution work?" PLEASE post your original problem and ask us "How do I solve this problem?" That said, of course if you have already tried or rejected one or more solutions that did not get the job done - or which might have worked if you only knew some secret trick - post those solutions you have tried as well. You may have been on the edge of a solution and missed a trick or at the very least you will be less likely to get replies that tell you to try something you have already tried or rejected. But the important part is to post the ORIGINAL PROBLEM! The post today with the subject "DBDELIMITER in dbexport/dbimport process" is a good example. The OP was clear and concise in his description of what he tried and listed several alternatives he had already thought of. All good. The only problem was his question was "I'm trying to make a dbexport/dbimport process on a big database (30go+) in order to change the dbs structure." At least the OP posted a problem before describing the failed solution, however, it was not the original problem. The original problem was something like: "I need to move my database tables to new dbspaces. I have tried dbexport/dbimport but ...." Because of this it took five hours before a truly better solution was presented to the OP and that only happened after the OP responded to the group as a whole with "For having more accurate info, the structure must not change, i only want to move to a different dbspace structure." So, again, PLEASE post your ORIGINAL problem, not the solution you can't get to work! Art Art S. Kagel Advanced DataTools (www.advancedatatools.com) Blog: http://informix-myview.blogspot.com/ Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that my own opinions are my own opinions and do not reflect on my employer, Advanced DataTools, the IIUG, nor any other organization with which I am associated either explicitly, implicitly, or by inference. Neither do those opinions reflect those of other individuals affiliated with any entity with which I am affiliated nor those of the entities themselves. --14dae9341151d9fea304b3fac61c

Well said Art. Thanks for posting. Jonathan B. Smaby Pomona College -- "If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." - Jim Rohn -----Original Message----- From: ids-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:ids-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Art Kagel Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 7:19 AM To: ids@iiug.org Subject: Plea to newbies [25591] I post this, or something very like it about once a year. It seems to be overdue. This is addressed mainly to newbies, but we are all guilty of doing it occassionally, so all should at least remember that they read it last year ;-) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE: When you have a problem that you cannot solve and you decide there may be someone in the greater Informix Community who can help you, please DO NOT post the solution you tried and could not get to work asking us "How do I make this solution work?" PLEASE post your original problem and ask us "How do I solve this problem?" That said, of course if you have already tried or rejected one or more solutions that did not get the job done - or which might have worked if you only knew some secret trick - post those solutions you have tried as well. You may have been on the edge of a solution and missed a trick or at the very least you will be less likely to get replies that tell you to try something you have already tried or rejected. But the important part is to post the ORIGINAL PROBLEM! The post today with the subject "DBDELIMITER in dbexport/dbimport process" is a good example. The OP was clear and concise in his description of what he tried and listed several alternatives he had already thought of. All good. The only problem was his question was "I'm trying to make a dbexport/dbimport process on a big database (30go+) in order to change the dbs structure." At least the OP posted a problem before describing the failed solution, however, it was not the original problem. The original problem was something like: "I need to move my database tables to new dbspaces. I have tried dbexport/dbimport but ...." Because of this it took five hours before a truly better solution was presented to the OP and that only happened after the OP responded to the group as a whole with "For having more accurate info, the structure must not change, i only want to move to a different dbspace structure." So, again, PLEASE post your ORIGINAL problem, not the solution you can't get to work! Art Art S. Kagel Advanced DataTools (www.advancedatatools.com) Blog: http://informix-myview.blogspot.com/ Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that my own opinions are my own opinions and do not reflect on my employer, Advanced DataTools, the IIUG, nor any other organization with which I am associated either explicitly, implicitly, or by inference. Neither do those opinions reflect those of other individuals affiliated with any entity with which I am affiliated nor those of the entities themselves. --14dae9341151d9fea304b3fac61c ******************************************************************************* Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. ------------------------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned by Postini anti-virus software.