How To Interpret Answers to your questions
RTFM and STFW: How To Tell You've Seriously Screwed Up
There is an ancient and hallowed tradition: if you get a reply that reads “RTFM”, the person who sent it thinks you should have Read The Fucking Manual. He or she is almost certainly right. Go read it.
RTFM has a younger relative. If you get a reply that reads “STFW”, the person who sent it thinks you should have Searched The Fucking Web. He or she is almost certainly right. Go search it. (The milder version of this is when you are told “Google is your friend!”)
In Web forums, you may also be told to search the forum archives. In fact, someone may even be so kind as to provide a pointer to the previous thread where this problem was solved. But do not rely on this consideration; do your archive-searching before asking.
Often, the person telling you to do a search has the manual or the web page with the information you need open, and is looking at it as he or she types. These replies mean that he thinks (a) the information you need is easy to find, and (b) you will learn more if you seek out the information than if you have it spoon-fed to you.
You shouldn't be offended by this; by hacker standards, your respondent is showing you a rough kind of respect simply by not ignoring you. You should instead be thankful for this grandmotherly kindness.
Questions not to ask..
Q:
Where can I find program or resource X?
A:
The same place I'd find it, fool — at the other end of a web search. Ghod, doesn't everybody know how to use Google yet?
Q:
How can I use X to do Y?
A:
If what you want is to do Y, you should ask that question without pre-supposing the use of a method that may not be appropriate. Questions of this form often indicate a person who is not merely ignorant about X, but confused about what problem Y they are solving and too fixated on the details of their particular situation. It is generally best to ignore such people until they define their problem better.
Q:
How can I configure my shell prompt?
A:
If you're smart enough to ask this question, you're smart enough to RTFM and find out yourself.
Q:
Can I convert an AcmeCorp document into a TeX file using the Bass-o-matic file converter?
A:
Try it and see. If you did that, you'd (a) learn the answer, and (b) stop wasting my time.
Q:
My {program, configuration, SQL statement} doesn't work
A:
This is not a question, and I'm not interested in playing Twenty Questions to pry your actual question out of you — I have better things to do. On seeing something like this, my reaction is normally of one of the following:
do you have anything else to add to that?
oh, that's too bad, I hope you get it fixed.
and this has exactly what to do with me?
Q:
I'm having problems with my Windows machine. Can you help?
A:
Yes. Throw out that Microsoft trash and install an open-source operating system like Linux or BSD.
Note: you can ask questions related to Windows machines if they are about a program that does have an official Windows build, or interacts with Windows machines (i.e., Samba). Just don't be surprised by the reply that the problem is with Windows and not the program, because Windows is so broken in general that this is very often the case.
Q:
My program doesn't work. I think system facility X is broken.
A:
While it is possible that you are the first person to notice an obvious deficiency in system calls and libraries heavily used by hundreds or thousands of people, it is rather more likely that you are utterly clueless. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence; when you make a claim like this one, you must back it up with clear and exhaustive documentation of the failure case.
Q:
I'm having problems installing Linux or X. Can you help?
A:
No. I'd need hands-on access to your machine to troubleshoot this. Go ask your local Linux user group for hands-on help. (You can find a list of user groups here.)
Note: questions about installing Linux may be appropriate if you're on a forum or mailing list about a particular distribution, and the problem is with that distro; or on local user groups forums. In this case, be sure to describe the exact details of the failure. But do careful searching first, with "linux" and all suspicious pieces of hardware.
Q:
How can I crack root/steal channel-ops privileges/read someone's e-mail?
A:
You're a lowlife for wanting to do such things and a moron for asking a hacker to help you.
Well it made me smile anyways..
all quotes from http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-que ... html#forum
