Pissed off with the same questions all the time

[nicksimc]

As a newer list member, I have to say that the continual discussion of
problems on the list itself is more of a help than the archives.  To use the
archives, you have to scour every link for whatever info you need.  The
search engine isn't 'intelligent' in answering questions, it just lists what
it
'finds.'  I think a positive step towards making the archive function better
would be to remove the digests of the list from the search.  The only thing
that 'pisses me off' more than sifting through MIME format garbage in the
normal digest is having to sift through it when I'm trying to find some
information.
  Most of the listers who have enough knowledge base to spend 20 min
typing a post or a BTDT on a given subject have their own sites as well.  It
takes just as much bandwidth, if not less to say "Here's a URL to my site
with that info," as it does to say "Look in the archives you moron."
  Also, I have been able to diagnose certain problems without even
searching the archive or consulting the list because I saw the information
fly by when someone else had that problem.  Granted, this requires
_paying attention_,  but personally I find the list to be more useful as an
active teaching tool than the archive, which is _not_ a reference library, but
an actual _archive_ of every smart/stupid/wrong/right/on-topic/off-topic
email that anyone has posted for the last ten years.
  This obviously includes me as well, but then again I have read plenty of
archived posts from those who are 'pissed off' about answering 'old'
questions, when plenty of you have asked the same 'old' questions _that
could have been answered had you searched the archive at the time._
We are all newbies at one time or another, at one thing or another.
<rant off>

M Nicksic

'84 4ksq
'82 4ks