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Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer

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In article <FAQ-20230105144901@ram.dialup.fu-berlin.de>,
Stefan Ram <ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de> wrote:
> Welcome back!

Vielen dank.

> The idea of an FAQ once was, I believe, to answer questions
> that were frequently asked in a newsgroups.

FWIW, my ideas about FAQ lists have evolved somewhat over the
years.  At first I believed, rather fervently, that the purpose
was not only to answer the questions, but thereby prevent them
from being reposted again.  But it turns out that doesn't work:
the only thing more certain than that a neverending stream of
new learners will have the same questions, is that they won't
have heard of FAQ lists and so will go ahead and post anyway.

And it's actually even a little more interesting than that.
For example, I now have the utmost sympathy for people who post
to ask why, say, i++ + i++ doesn't give them the result they
expected.  I don't excoriate them, even in my mind, for not
trying to do any research first.  For one thing, "i++ + i++"
doesn't seem like a reasonable thing to do a Google search for,
but more importantly, it is just *so* bizarre and surprising that
the code behaves the way(s) it does!

Perhaps I'm turning into a hopeless softie, but today, if a
newbie gets bawled out for asking why i++ + i++ doesn't work
without doing any research first, I imagine a new car owner
driving blissfully down the highway with the windows open and the
radio on, when suddenly a front wheel flies off and the car goes
careening into a ditch.  The stunned and bloodied driver manages
to call 911 on his cell phone, but when the emergency responders
arrive, they start yelling at him: "What were you *doing*?
Didn't you know you couldn't use the radio with the windows
open?!  That's UNDEFINED BEHAVIOR!!  It's stated clearly in a
footnote on page 317 of your owner's manual!  Don't do that,
or don't call us again if you do!"

(It's not a perfect analogy, but it is how I imagine the poor
newbie must feel.)

> Such questions do not exist here anymore. So now one has to
> either use one's imagination [...] or pick questions from other
> sources (such as web forums) where more people are.

Indeed.  I'm somewhat sorry, but I'm not losing any sleep, over
the fact that for the past N years, I haven't been monitoring
this newsgroup for new questions, because I've been picking up
plenty from places like Stack Overflow.

					Steve Summit
					scs@eskimo.com

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greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer scs@eskimo.com (Steve Summit) - 2023-01-05 13:31 +0000
  Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2023-01-05 07:10 -0800
  Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2023-01-05 17:17 +0000
    Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer scs@eskimo.com (Steve Summit) - 2023-01-06 16:41 +0000
      Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2023-01-06 09:29 -0800
        Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2023-01-06 20:01 +0100
        Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Anton Shepelev <anton.txt@gmail.com> - 2023-01-15 23:32 +0300
        Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Rob <invalid@invalid.net> - 2023-01-15 22:00 +0000
          Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2023-01-15 15:03 -0800
            Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2023-01-16 09:32 +0000
              Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Vir Campestris <vir.campestris@invalid.invalid> - 2023-01-16 12:25 +0000
                Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Jan van den Broek <balglaas@dds.nl> - 2023-01-16 13:51 +0000
                Whoooooosh!  (Was: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer) gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2023-01-16 14:09 +0000
      Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2023-01-06 17:32 +0000
  Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2023-01-05 19:55 +0100
  Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer scs@eskimo.com (Steve Summit) - 2023-01-05 20:28 +0000
  Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2023-01-05 14:07 -0800
  Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer om@iki.fi (Otto J. Makela) - 2023-01-06 16:34 +0200
  Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2023-01-08 05:21 -0800
    Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2023-01-08 12:58 -0800
  Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Anand Hariharan <mailto.anand.hariharan@gmail.com> - 2023-01-09 04:51 -0800
    Re: greetings from a long-lost FAQ list maintainer Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2023-01-09 06:03 -0800

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