Michael said:
Though I am probably breaking many "laws" of this newsgroup, I'll answer his
question.
At one time, I hated comp.lang.c because so many were against off-topic
posts. Despite my disagreeing point-of-view, I continued to read the
messages from this group in hopes of making a better C programmer out of
me. After my C class was over for the semester, I wandered over to an
old Visual Basic newsgroup I once followed, looking to see if any of the
old crew was still around. What I saw shocked me. Messages about Word,
Excel, web development, ADO, etc., etc., etc., plagued the newsgroup. I
estimated for every one on-topic message, there were at least nine
others, which were not. In addition, the same questions were commonly
asked three or four times a day. The number of posts became
overwhelming for people to keep up with. As a result, bad advice was
common place and corrections were rarely made.
Despite the off-topicality and repetitive nature of the messages, no one
seemed to care. Posts were answered and people seemed happy. It was
then that I gained a high level of respect for the people of CLC.
Although seemingly cruel at times, comp.lang.c was by far, the most
professional and informative of all newsgroups I frequently visited.
Messages were clear and quick to the point. Off-topic messages were
redirected to newsgroups possibly containing members more educated in
the topic then anybody here. Furthermore, keeping the amount of noise
down to a low has by far improved my and many others ability to track
down important messages using Google. Above all, if bad or incomplete
advice was given, the people of this newsgroup could be trusted on for
making the necessary corrections.
Has comp.lang.c made a better C programmer out of me? I hope so. If
you absolutely must answer an off-topic message, at least send it in an
email. I personally prefer the redirection for reasons of verification.
I would really hate to see comp.lang.c turn into another newsgroup run
by a bunch of kids. Please don't ruin it for the rest of us by
responding to off-topic posts the way you did.
Sean