When this newsgroup was first created, it seemed to be one of the
few newsgroups for which the members seemed to have respect for
each other.  I have been too busy to get on the group for the past
couple of months, and I'm taken aback by the change in many of the
posters (or maybe new posters)!

When someone asks a question (for which they obviously don't have
the answer) please spare us and them the smart-aleck remarks.  Try
to remember they're not stupid; they just have a question to ask.
 If they don't know about FAQ's, tell them.  If you know the
answer and you think it's a stupid question; how about answering
the question _as though it wasn't_ and spare all of us the
bandwidth and time-wasting of reading your "I'm smart and you're
stupid" remarks.  

After all, IMHO the people who leave smart-ass remarks like that
are no more intelligent than those who asked the question.  The
difference is that they have an inferiority complex and the strong
desire to PROVE how abundantly intelligent they are.

Thanks for allowing me to take up your bandwidth.  This is
directed at no-one in particular.

John Reynolds

        What a stupid post.

        (Sorry, it was an excellent post, it was just a joke that
someone had to make...)

--
David Ullrich
Don't you guys find it tedious typing the same thing
after your signature each time you post something?
I know I do, but when in Rome...

On 7 Jan 1996 21:34:43 GMT, John Reynolds <71154....@CompuServe.COM>
wrote:

I've been here the whole time, but I've noticed the change too.
I think it's party because those of us who have been using Delphi
since day one now know the answers to 90% of the questions asked here,
but have become bored by the repetitiveness of them (they seem to be
asked every two weeks or so).
This is mostly due to the large growth of new Delphi users, all of
whom need to re-invent the wheel.
I agree. The only point I would make here is that a lot of the
questions appearing now are so basic that they should be answered in
an FAQ, and it should be posted here regularly (or a reference to it
should be).
Kirk's 'Knowledge Base' is a good idea, but it's not a proper FAQ
(where things are explained at a basic level), and the only other
FAQ's I have come across are not being maintained or updated.
I think that a reply that states 'Please see section x of the FAQ' is
a perfectly valid reply to a lot of questions - but without an FAQ ...
Somebody out there please offer to start and maintain a proper FAQ for
these newsgroups (I would be happy to help, but I don't have the time
or experience to do it myself).
Actually in a lot of cases it is obvious that they don't actually know
the answer, but would like to imply that they do.

---------------------------------
Casey Charlton
ca...@larouss.demon.co.uk

In article <30f0eee4.3823...@news.demon.co.uk>, ca...@larouss.demon.co.uk
says...

I just want to point out that it includes the Delphi FAQ!  Every question
and answer, the way it was in the text file!  It is just that it contains
a lot more information as well, and it is not a top-down readable doc.

The only complaint I have received on the Knowledge Base is that there is
a lot of *noise* in it.  A situation I am working on, but will take a while.

What do I have to do to make it more suitable to tell people to look to it?

___________________________________________________________________________
Kirk Wolak
KWo...@mail.cbf.com
//
// Const ViewsExpressed = "My own and not those of the company I work for!";
//

Delphi Knowledge Base available at:

   http://www.teleport.com/~grump/delphi.htm

Happy new year everyone....

Perhaps it's time to create a new newsgroup

Comp.Lang.Pascal.Delphi.Expert

for those of you who are indeed bored by the repetitiveness of the posts.

You can then flame happily at anyone who posts easy (novice) type questions (such as myself),
because we've not been using Delphi long, and smile happily at those who ask genuinely hard
questions.

I have to say that as a regular reader/poster I'm very impressed by the way in which certain
people (like the ones I'm replying to) regularly reply to people's questions, such patience is
indeed a virtue.

Ttfn

John B

On 8 Jan 1996 21:08:52 GMT, KWo...@mail.cbf.com (Kirk Wolak) wrote:

The only problem here is that the Knowledge Base is good for people
past the first few months of troubles, but upto then they need a very
basic, top-down FAQ.
Some of the questions getting asked over and over again (transparent
bitmaps, why I crash when I don't use Create/Free, how do I create a
button at runtime, etc) are just getting tedious. My answers have got
shorter and shorter over time, because I get bored of repeating
answers.
An FAQ, updated regularly, and posted here, would solve a lot of that.
The Knowledge Base help file is a great idea in that it can be linked
into the IDE, but it can't be posted here (not in the way a text FAQ
can).

In itself it's a handy file to have access to in the IDE, but it
doesn't solve the problem of people asking questions in the
newsgroups. The generally accepted procedure for that is to have an
FAQ that is posted say once a week, as most people lurk around for
that long trying to track down the answer they need.

You can always block your newsreader from downloading it if you don't
want it.

---------------------------------
Casey Charlton
ca...@larouss.demon.co.uk

In article <4cpe9j$g7...@mhadf.production.compuserve.com>
           71154....@CompuServe.COM "John Reynolds" writes:

| Thanks for allowing me to take up your bandwidth.  This is
| directed at no-one in particular.
|
| John Reynolds
|

Having worked up through the levels of news-watcher, I believe
I may have almost reached the hallowed pinacle as written in the
mind-bending UNIX haters guide.

So chill out and dont let little things like this get you down.
There's far bigger things to waste your anger on.
(sic)

not wanting to get flamed for an wholly inppropriate post,
use bigarray from borlands ftp site if you dont care about
64K limits.
--
                                URIEL
  GABRIEL        For I am the flaming pentagram in the       RAPHAEL
                 column of the six-rayed star.
                                MICHAEL

On Tue, 9 Jan 1996, The Lord of Darkness wrote:

I'm waiting some MENT from group-mentors to talk me through the RFD
process; and we'll RFD a whole host of new groups.

--
Sam Liddicott                  |   Nothing I say is to be attributed as
Campbell Scientific Ltd.       | a company statement or representation.
14-20 Field Street, Shepshed,  *----------------------------------------
Leicestershire,                             Phone: +44 (0) 1509 601141
United Kingdom. LE12 9AL                    Fax:   +44 (0) 1509 601091

I fear that too many groups would be just a bad (if not worse!).

  .databases
  .announce
  .expert
  .compdev    (for component developers)
  .components (for users of components, maybe the 3rd party world would supp)
  .beginner    
  .misc       (Do we need?)

What groups did you have in mind?

Kirk

In article <Pine.SCO.3.91.960111164540.8804H-100...@csluk.demon.co.uk>,
s...@csluk.demon.co.uk says...

--
___________________________________________________________________________
Kirk Wolak
KWo...@mail.cbf.com
//
// Const ViewsExpressed = "My own and not those of the company I work for!";
//
Look at the Delphi Knowledge Base for answers to your questions...
  http://www.teleport.com/~grump/delphi.htm

.announce
.wizards [expert]
.howto

Perhaps compdev is also needed.  Help turn this into a fat discussion
thread and we'll get a new concensus.

Previous discussion (which I files) frowned upon beginners as no-one
would be humble enough to post there (go figure- I beginner must know
they are a beginner).

For those who think too many groups is bad, we can get everyone to
cross-post to misc, and you can just subscribe to that.

--
--
Sam Liddicott                  |   Nothing I say is to be attributed as
Campbell Scientific Ltd.       | a company statement or representation.
14-20 Field Street, Shepshed,  *----------------------------------------

These we have, and need to keep:
.databases
.misc  
.components

In order of desiribility:
.announce
.howto
.vcl  (instead of .compdev - so things like RTTI and streams could be discussed)
.api  (with Win32 support coming soon, .misc will see more API question flow)

I don't see a need for a .experts group, myself.

-Tony Lownds

[posted and E-mailed]

s...@csluk.demon.co.uk (Sam Liddicott) wrote in
comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc:

I'm planning to send an RFD for the .announce group of into tale on
1/22 (I posted a Pre-RFD message on 1/8).  As I said in that post and
have posted since, I'd be happy to take part in a larger
reorganization if someone else is willing work with me on it.  The
only other group that I feel anywhere near strongly enough about to
write up for the RFD is .3rdparty, an effort to free up .components
for writing them as it was chartered, and I'm not willing to cloud the
my main issue unless I'm sure there's going to be someone else
fighting for it alongside me in news.groups.

So if you've got a group that you feel strongly enough about to write
a rationale and charter for, and are willing to sign on as an official
proponent for it, talk to me.  If a consensus doesn't develop until
after the discussion period for .announce has started the RFD can be
amended, but the sooner the process starts the sooner it will be done.

--
"I am an ethical being," the daemon explained.  "These people
expected to be eaten.  When one is in a strange place, the most
ethical thing is to treat people as they expect to be treated".
--John Benson