> Bill Strosberg wrote:
I would hate to lose the ability to pose questions to the people here because they became tired of the role of free Coles Notes for the Technically Fascinated.
Let's ask Bart directly: "Are you getting tired of answering these questions, Bart?"
That's 1 or 2 questions a month, from May until October; Bart has contributed to all of them. Kudos Bart!
Praising Bart and all other contributors is a much more productive way, IMO, of ensuring that this valuable resource remains to us all.
Now if others started following William Case's example and we started to get flooded with these open-ended questions, this could be a problem, but I would hardly call 1 or 2 a month a flood. (Although counting the follow-up questions in each thread, the number is higher).
Please note that the member who is generating the traffic is unquestionably polite, earnest and honest in his efforts to learn.
(I just thought I'd leave that in)
If the member to whom I am speaking would make the effort to publicly publish and share the knowledge freely given to him with others (in the true spirit of open source) I could easily be convinced to cease my objections. Create a wiki-style site. Help others as people have helped you.
Or do something completely different to help the community. Each has their own strengths; contribute best where you can. I hope we've grown past simple quid pro quo.
If not this year, then the next, but be aware that humans have an overdeveloped sense of fairness. Leeches are looked down on, even though open source takes advantage of the concept that those who take a lot and give a little are still positive contributors to the project.
Bryan