RTFM? IWMITWAFM! (Was: Re: [Zope] WebDAV, Zope, M$ and implications...)

[Dieter Maurer]

Douglas Carnall writes:
 > Dieter Maurer wrote:
 > > Come on. Start searching. Try what you found.
 > > If there remains a problem, look again at the archives and when
 > > that does not help, come again with a precise question.
 > 
 > Just to test a point, I tried the search Andreas described earlier (on
 > "andreas jung webdav office" at http://www.zope.org/SiteIndex/searchForm
 > searching only on lists.zope.org). It pulled up 21 hits (3 google pages) to
 > posts submitted over the period Aug 2001 - Feb 2002.

It is quite often that people complain about lacking documentation
but they do not read what is there. Lots of questions are really
FAQ's, described e.g. in the Zope book, the Zope developer guide or

  <http://www.dieter.handshake.de/pyprojects/zope/book/chap3.html>

Nevertheless, they come up over and over again.

I am quite happy to help people but I expect that they are also
ready to do something. This can take several forms:

  *  they looked around for available information (Zope book,
     Zope developers guide, my chapter three, the mailing list
     archives) before they ask

  *  they summarize what they learned in a piece of documentation
     e.g. a HowTo on Zope.org.

  *  they help other people in the community

I have no understanding at all for people who tell me they need to
make money with real projects and therefore do not have time to search
for information. Me, too, I need to make my living and do not have
time to write things down for others that they can concentrate on
their projects...


I also can not share your experience with Google. Recently, a colleague
reported a weird bug: he accesses a MS Word file inside Zope and is
asked by IE 6 to provide his network password. No problem with
IE 5.5. Ten minutes Googling revealed a relevant thread that provided
a precise problem description and some work arounds.
I do not think that a HowTo could have helped more. The problem was quite
specific. To find something related would almost surely require a
search engine..


Dieter