Re: "be nice" reminder [Was: mod_perl advocacy project resurrection]

[Jim Serio <ji...@rollercoaster.com>]

> But if we're talking advocacy, I must point out that as a newbie, my
> biggest problem was finding out where to look to *find* the manual.
> Also, when I was trying to get this system working ~now~, (the
> "out-of-the-box" problem we keep seeing), it was frequently important
> that I get answers quickly, and though I hated to bother the list with
> mundanities, it was a lot faster to ask (and get a response amid the
> RTFM's) than to read through a dozen documents to find where the
> information I needed, especially when it was ditributed among three or
> four of them and I needed to understand the relationships before it
> made any sense.....

We all find ourselves in the "I'm in a hurry" situation and before
taking any time to look for an answer we sometimes blow our load and
post a message. I've done that in the past and sometimes catch myself
doing that on other lists (though I'm getting better :). The problem
is that by time you post it, you've already spent considerable time
describing your problem. Then there's the delay while it trickles out
to the list and I usually spend my time searching the list archives.
Roughly 80% of the time I will have found the answer within an hour
of my post (and usually well before someone replies). What does this
tell me? Regardless of how much of a rush we're in, it will still
take some time before our question makes it to the list and by that
time, if we use the resources made available to us, we'll have found
the answer.

Personally, I find the list archives to be *valuable* for most, if not
all of the problems/questions I've had with mod_perl.

I agree with Dave who said that if you are tackling new technology
you should prepare to spend some time. No one I know who is trying
out mod_perl is going to have it up and running with full-on-developed
scripts in a day :-) Even with my 3 years experience using and
configuring mod_perl it still takes me a good day to properly
setup and configure out development and production boxes here.

Jim
-- 
Jim Serio - jim@rollercoaster.com
Producer, World of Coasters