Newbies

davorg on 2003-05-29T07:19:26

On a CGI-newbie board that I read someone asked a question about getting data out of an Access database. I replied saying that the answer to their question depended completely on the code they had written and suggesting that they posted it to the board.

This morning I get an email from them saying that they hadn't written any code, but they had the Access database. To prove it, they attached 1.2Mb of Access database file. What am I going to do with an Access database?

Also from the same board (in response to a different question):

Knowledgeable Person: Is the path to perl in the first line of your program correct?

Newbie: It seems to be. But that line is commented out.

Nuisances

ethan on 2003-05-29T09:06:56

This morning I get an email from them saying that they hadn't written any code, but they had the Access database. To prove it, they attached 1.2Mb of Access database file. What am I going to do with an Access database?

There appears to be a rule when participating in newsgroups or mailings-lists: Never appear to be too helpful. Often enough I received private mails of help-seekers that would have eventually promoted me to their private consultant if I had replied. Sometimes even they would send me a few hundred lines of code asking whether I'd spot the error.

Re:Nuisances

davorg on 2003-05-29T09:27:06
My current policy is to reply politely pointing out that I can only justify the time spent handing out free advice if it's done in a public forum. I go on to say that I'm perfectly happy to give them one-to-one advice if that's what they want - and then I tell them my rates.

"commented out" :)

educated_foo on 2003-05-29T13:59:22

Newbie: It seems to be. But that line is commented out.

I thought this was absolutely beautiful. The correct response, of course, would be "see that exclamation point after the '#'? That means 'not a comment'."