>The kindest thing you can do for anyone in difficulty is to persuade him >that he really does need to study the manual.
>He shouldn't even be posting questions until he has looked into the matter >himself and drawn a blank on all fronts. So any question answered in the >manual deserves either to be totally ignored or to be flamed. It does NOT >deserve an answer. This is a bit strong isn't it? Sometimes newbies don't know how to find the answer themselves. Unfortunately UNIX skills are not inherently obvious to all and the information that you find so easy to obtain can sometimes be tricky for newbies. Hence all the recent discussions on a newbies information guide. Of course people should be encouraged to read the manual pages. But a polite answer that helps the new user AND points them to where they could have found it themselves is likely to result in more people taking the time to learn Linux. To "be totally ignored or ... flamed" is hardly the appropriate response I am afraid.
