I don’t think you’re saying anything that all of us don’t feel from time to
time. I’m not sure where this culture of, “you must answer my questions NOW
and if not I will repeatedly bump the post by whining” comes from, but it’s
certainly annoying. It demonstrates a major lack of engineering discipline
as well as a lack of respect to the more experienced engineers on the list,
which is very anti the engineering culture and leaves a sour taste in
people’s mouths (I’ve only been in the field for 11 years and I’m offended,
so I can imagine how others with much more experience than I have feel).
Unfortunately, posts like Rod’s fall on deaf ears. I absolutely agree with
everything here, though I’m not the one that needs convincing 
The current
crop of whiners will probably be silenced for a while, but then we’ll go
through this all over again.
For my own sanity I’ve just taken to ignoring anyone that starts demanding
an answer. Even if I’m interested in the question I don’t bother getting
involved, likely they’ll end up requiring far too much involvement and not
be happy with the sort of sporadic responses I can afford to do here.
We generally require that offenses be particularly egregious in order to
justify banning, but it’s an option if someone repeatedly tries to berate
people into answering. It just creates noise on what is generally a list
that is rich in content. Then they can take their questions to the OTHER
lists about FS development on Windows (oh, wait…).
Lastly, to those that don’t get a response to your posts, it’s generally
because it’s too specific, too broad, or people don’t have time. If you
really, REALLY need an answer immediately and you don’t get it, there are
lots of paid options out there. If it’s not critical and just something
you’re trying to work through, wait a few days. If you don’t get a response,
you can always try reformulating your question with new information or
details that you’ve discovered. THIS might get a different response.
However, chastising us and telling us how disappointed you are in us will
just turn you into a troll.
-scott
–
Scott Noone
Consulting Associate and Chief System Problem Analyst
OSR Open Systems Resources, Inc.
http://www.osronline.com
“Rod Widdowson” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntfsd…
I have nothing to do with the management of this list and I expect that what
I say here will get me moderated.
There have been a couple of posts recently where people seem to think that
this is a service which they are paying for.
It isn’t.
This isn’t even a list supporting an open source project (where the
expectations are that because you haven’t paid for it, and it probably has
bad documentation, the developers will answer questions)
People who answer in this group have other jobs, they fill in here as and
when they can. But remember that what is happening here is free an for
free you get what you pay for. The answer may not be correct (although the
community dynamic will usually see that it is), but it certainly won’t be on
any schedule.
The people who answer here have usually been where the questioners are and
want to help. But they are under no obligation.
The people who answer here also understand the restrictions that for many of
the readership English isn’t the first language, and American isn’t their
culture.
In comparison to some open source lists, the people who answer here are also
quite polite.
But when it comes to it, this is still a free service. Offered by techies
for techies (with the support of OSR of course, who need again to be thanks
for hosting this list)
If you *need* answers and *have* to have them on a timescale, there are
plenty of people who can do this for you, but that will cost money.
Meanwhile NTFSD is still (IMO) the best place to go for information about
NTFS file systems issues. We’ll help if we can, but don’t chastise us,
don’t make demands, because it puts people off and you will find that you
get less back rather than more back.
Rod
(sorry, couldn’t resist!)