[thelist] The Tao of asking questions on thelist

Ornstein, Ian IanOrnstein at NC.SLR.com
Tue Nov 20 07:59:18 CST 2001


I worked as a contract programmer at DEC from 1982 to 1984.
Early on I was introduced to the threaded discussions called Notes.
There were discussions on work topics and non work topics.
I presume that the non work related topics were tolerated as
a training facility for the employees. Notes was world wide.
I'd often post a question before I left in the evening and
have a reply from across the world when I arrived the next
morning.

It took a while to get a feel for the sentence structure
and vocabulary of successful questions. On new products,
the developers were eager for feedback and would be quite
helpful. On mature products, you needed to find a dedicated user.

I do remember asking a question and after the reply arrived.
A Email message arrived say that he had asked the same question
before and received no replies. He thanked me for the way I asked
the question that received the reply. It might just have been chance,
or maybe I set the stage correctly to make it convenient for someone
to reply; we will never know.

Of course, as the years went by I became the replier.
You cannot keep taking with out contributing.

- IanO -




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