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Literal postings, was Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld

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On Sat 18 Aug 2018 at 10:02:39 (+0200), Anders Andersson wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 16, 2018 at 7:47 PM, Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> wrote:
> >
> > P.S. I wish my initial posts be taken literally. <chuckle>
> 
> I wish this for every question on the mailing list but sadly that
> rarely happens, leading to a lot of pointless traffic to wade through.
> On every question there's always the "helpful" people who just wants
> to share their 2 cents worth of opinion and derail the question in the
> process.
> 
> I guess that's partially because a lot of people don't know how to ask
> a question[,] so everyone assumes that it is not to be taken literally.
> 
> Maybe I'm not a hundred years old like you guys, but on the inside I'm
> just as grumpy, err, I mean "opinionated"!

. A lot of OPs provide very little background information. Sometimes
this may be because they don't know what *is* relevant, but often a
thread turns into an episode of "Twenty Questions" because of what
seems like a reluctance to reveal any facts about their system.

. Following this, when the OP apparently "disappears" after making
their first post, people are left little option but to make guesses
about what their problem might be caused by. One cannot but suspect
that many OPs are helped by these discussions (the bits where the
guess was correct), fix their system and then say nothing or,
occasionally, post "Thanks. Period." Whereupon one of the helpers
might ask them to be more helpful and reveal which solution fixed
which problem so that others might benefit.

. Some OPs provide facts which, when people start investigating, are
found to be incorrect, so the thread bifurcates into those accepting
the factoid and others disputing it.

. Some OPs post what they want to do without realising their
assumptions already made nor the implications of those assumptions
which might lead to undesirable consequences they hadn't foreseen.

. Many OPs are not writing in their native language, so it would
be unkind to only take their words literally.

All that said, "Careful what you wish for". A stilted overdefined
conversation will probably not be as helpful to people. In a
troubleshooting environment you want your thinking to be lateral:
only the code itself is literal.

Cheers,
David.

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Thread

Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2018-08-16 14:50 +0200
  Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2018-08-16 16:30 +0200
    Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2018-08-16 16:50 +0200
    Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Zenaan Harkness <zenaan@freedbms.net> - 2018-08-16 17:10 +0200
  Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Glenn English <ghe2001@gmail.com> - 2018-08-16 16:30 +0200
    Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> - 2018-08-19 15:40 +0200
      Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Glenn English <ghe2001@gmail.com> - 2018-08-20 17:20 +0200
        Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Tony van der Hoff <lists@vanderhoff.org> - 2018-08-20 18:20 +0200
          Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Anders Andersson <pipatron@gmail.com> - 2018-08-20 19:10 +0200
            Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2018-08-20 19:30 +0200
              Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2018-08-21 21:40 +0200
                Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2018-08-21 22:10 +0200
                Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2018-08-21 23:20 +0200
                Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Fred <fred@blakemfg.com> - 2018-08-21 23:50 +0200
        Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> - 2018-08-21 13:20 +0200
  Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Dominic Knight <dominicknight@gmx.com> - 2018-08-16 17:10 +0200
    Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2018-08-16 19:50 +0200
      Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Gene Heskett <gheskett@shentel.net> - 2018-08-16 21:30 +0200
      Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Anders Andersson <pipatron@gmail.com> - 2018-08-18 10:10 +0200
        Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2018-08-18 11:10 +0200
        Literal postings, was Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-08-18 18:50 +0200
          Re: Literal postings, was Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux  handheld Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2018-08-18 19:40 +0200
            Re: Literal postings, was Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux  handheld Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2018-08-18 21:30 +0200
          Sid: NFSv3 mounting problem Grzegorz Sójka <pld@sojka.co> - 2018-08-18 21:40 +0200
            Re: Sid: NFSv3 mounting problem Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2018-08-18 21:50 +0200
          Re: Literal postings, was Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux handheld Anders Andersson <pipatron@gmail.com> - 2018-08-19 08:40 +0200
            Re: Literal postings, was Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux  handheld David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-08-19 20:40 +0200
              Re: Literal postings, was Re: Wanted - Debian(preferred)/Linux  handheld Zenaan Harkness <zenaan@freedbms.net> - 2018-08-20 02:30 +0200

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