On 16 Feb 2007 13:20:44 -0800, COGoldenBoy@gmail.com wrote:

>Were you the inspiration for the SNL skit, "Nick Burns, your company's
>computer guy"? Your arrogance and self-superiority really remind me
>of Nick Burns. If trying to help people on this NG is such an
>inconvenience for you, why bother responding? I haven't seen anyone
>as rude and condescending as you on any tech NG's in quite a while.

Yep. I'm also rude, arrogant, obnoxious, irritating, tactless,
boorish, and sometimes even hostile. I also spend an inordinate
amount of time helping people solve problems for free in this
newsgroup. Checking Google, that's:
<http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=alt.internet.wireless&as_uauthors =Jeff+Liebermann>
4,780 answers in about 1.5 years. For total newsgroups, it's been
about 15,000 answers since the stone age.

When people asking questions bother to supply sufficient information
needed to answer the question (such as the model numbers), when they
bother to do a simple Google search *BEFORE* asking, and when they
answer perhaps 80% of the questions that I ask in return trying to
figure out what they own and how they're doing things, then I'll be
nice, diplomatic, and courteous.

In the past, I've tried almost everything from diplomacy to absurdity
to get people to format their questions in a manner that can be
answered. Since you apparently haven't read any of my previous
postings, that means:
1. What are you trying to accomplish?
2. What do you have to work with? (Hardware, OS, versions,
topology, environment, numbers).
3. What have you tried and what happened? (error messages).
That has failed miserably. Almost every question I've tried to answer
in several weeks has been deficient in one or more of these areas.
Frankly, I've given up trying. The result is that when someone (in my
opinion) screws up, I waste no effort being nice about pointing out
the problem. The good news is that very few make the same mistake
twice. The bad news is that there seems to be an infinite supply of
those willing to repeat them.

If you have a better way to extract the necessary information from
those apparently unwilling, unable, or too lazy to supply the basics,
I'm all ears as it will make answering questions so much easier.

As to why I bother to answer questions? I don't know. If I thought
too much about it, I probably would stop and do something else.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS