Re: DBD::Informix and comp.databases.informix

Jonathan Leffler wrote: > > 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. Well I am guilty of increasing the noise more than the signal, but I think the quality of the noise counts on a group like this, and that has certainly been going down hill over the last few months. I don't think it is wrong for you to get grumpy when people post questions to the wrong place. However, as you say, it is possibly not unreasonable, given the lack of info on were to post what. Certainly the level of questions to the group has been lowered, and the repetition has increased. Some news groups post a monthly FAQ of some sort, and maybe that's what we need. I have noticed that newbies to the group often struggle to find the main FAQ, let alone the online documentation. Cheers, -- Mark. +----------------------------------------------------------+-----------+ | Mark D. Stock mailto:mdstock@mydas.freeserve.co.uk |//////// /| | http://www.informix.com http://www.informixhandbook.com |///// / //| | http://www.iiug.org +-----------------------------------+//// / ///| | |This email will self-destruct in |/// / ////| | |10 sec. If you received this email |// / /////| | |in error, sorry about the mess. |/ ////////| +----------------------+-----------------------------------+-----------+