RE: :Informix and comp.databases.informix

As an enthusastic user, albeit a poor one, of DBI I'm happy to see the DBI questions in c.d.i, as long as they are DBI specific and not generice perl quesitons Re the documentation once Informix post it to www.informix.com/answers then we can just redirect people there can't we. The redirection and RTFM is becoming the standard response to too many questions. Yes the S/N ratio is getting worse, but it always seem to get worse at least once a year, but it normally recovers to a more acceptable level with a week or so. > -----Original Message----- > From: Jonathan Leffler [mailto:jleffler@informix.com] > Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 9:02 PM > To: Informix NewsGroup > Subject: DBD::Informix and comp.databases.informix > > > Dear Informix User, > > I've been justifiably chastised for being very grumpy when people post > questions about DBD::Informix to comp.databases.informix -- I do get > grumpy when people do that. > > There are two documented support channels for DBD::Informix: > > * a high-volume public mailing list, dbi-users@isc.org, which has a > small volume of Informix traffic and hence a low S/N ratio. > * a low-volume private mailing list, dbd-informix@informix.com, > specifically to the Informix support effort (aka me). > You won't be > subscribed to this list, but you can use it to > communicate problems. > > Given these alternatives, is it fair for me to complain when the > unknowing send questions to a plausible alternative (high-volume) news > group / mailing list, namely comp.databases.informix? Put > another way, > would the Informix community as a whole benefit from having > DBD::Informix questions answered on c.d.i? > > Also (and semi-relevantly to another thread started by > another obnoxious > question answerer), is it fair to point out RTFM to people asking > questions where the answer is in TFM? > > More complexly, I've just come across a new class of user for > DBD::Informix. Up until now, people who were using DBD::Informix had > also installed it, or they had easy access to the source > code. Now I'm > finding that there as some (potential) users who do not install > DBD::Informix themselves, and hence do not have easy access to the > source code. Since some of the documentation is not > installed with the > product (mainly because it only applies to a few circumstances), what > about people who RTFM but do not read the correct TFM because they do > not have direct access to the uninstalled documentation. Of > course, all > such users can get the source code (and it's the simple > cop-out for me), > but... > > Your thoughts, please - publicly or privately. > > -- > Yours, > Jonathan Leffler (Jonathan.Leffler@Informix.com) #include > <disclaimer.h> > Guardian of DBD::Informix v1.00.PC1 -- http://www.perl.com/CPAN > "I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it!" > > PS: S/N ratio = signal to noise ratio. Small values are bad; large > values are good. Mostly, c.d.i has an acceptable S/N ration, > but it is > trending downwards, which is bad. > The contents of this e-mail are confidential to the ordinary user(s) of the mail address(es) to which it was sent and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of it, or any part of it, in any form whatsoever, and any actions taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.

On Fri, 30 Jun 2000 09:15:19 +0100, Watson Paul Wrote: > > As an enthusastic user, albeit a poor one, of DBI I'm happy to > see the DBI questions in c.d.i, as long as they are DBI specific > and not generic perl questions > Well yeah, those questions get RTFM'd in comp.lang.perl.misc > Re the documentation once Informix post it to www.informix.com/answers > then we can just redirect people there can't we. The redirection and > RTFM is becoming the standard response to too many questions. > The module is, as all Perl modules should be, well documented - it should be sufficient for someone to type - man DBD::Informix or perldoc DBD::Informix on their own system. If people really need a PDF on 'Answers Online' then it would be trivial for the documentation to be converted. /J\\