Tor said:
Thanks for the answers... And yes, I have searched google!
As Pythonistas we can all marvel at the utility of Python, possibly
best-known for its many applications at Google. However, I've noticed an
increasing number of replies (quite possibly including some from me, so
I'm not being holier-than-thou in this respect) of the "sheesh, can't
people use Google?" type lately.
However,
goes a bit too far in imputing motives to the enquirer and overlooking
the fact that there are some very good reasons for *not* using Google.
Since Google and the Python Software Foundation have a relationship
(Google are a sponsor member of the Foundation, were one of the sponsors
of PyCon DC 2005 and employ some Foundation Board members) and since I
am a Board member of the Foundation (there, full disclosure), I hesitate
to suggest that Googling can't fulfil every individual's every needs,
but the bald fact is it's true. [Thinks: if Google stock tanks today I'm
in deep doo-doo here].
Technical people like to pretend there's only technology. The fact that
this is demonstrably not true doesn't appear to condition their
behaviour very much, and on newsgroups, a bastion of testosterone from
the very early days of internetworking (due to network news' tight
interlinking with the dial-up UUCP network that used mainly local calls
to propagate news and mail), the position is at its worst. Note that
we're talking male hormones here, since by and large women don't appear
to have embraced the Python community (except perhaps individually, but
that's no business of mine).
While a snappish "go and look it up on Google" might suffice for a
mouthy apprentice who's just asked their thirteenth question in the last
half hour, it's (shall we say) a little on the brusque side for someone
who only appears on the group last February, and has a history of asking
reasonably pertinent though sometimes beginner-level questions.
In the real world there are many reasons why people interact, and
interactions on c.l.py reflect this diversity. Sometimes it's just (as
Americans say) "gathering round the water cooler": it's good to be in
touch with a number of other people who have the same technical interest
as you, and sometimes you get to say "well done" or interject your own
opinion.
Other people come here for a sense of affirmation ("I wonder if those
Python guys will treat me like a leper if I post on c.l.py?"), amusement
("I wonder what the quote of the week'll be on the python-url"),
intelligence (I wonder if the Twisted guys have produces a new version
of X recently") and even identity ("I'll argue about everything I can
possibly find the minutest hole in so people know that I have a brain
and can use it").
Also, many regular readers didn't grow up speaking English (I was
tempted to omit those last two words and leave it at that, but I won;'t
be quite so extreme today), and so they may not phrase their questions
appropriately. For all I know, there may not be that much Google content
in Norwegian.
In short, this group is a broad church, and those readers with brain s
the size of planets should remember that they are just as much in a
minority as the readers who appear on the list for the first time this
week. The vast majority are here to learn and grow, and I think that's
the sort of behaviour we should be encouraging.
Google is *very* good at delivering information. I use google.com all
the time, and I'm also a Google Earth user. However, we wouldn't be at
all happy if Google just stuck a pipe onto our computers and spewed
information at them three times as fast as it could be read. Bandwidth
on a group like this is precious (which, I recently had to be reminded,
is why it's important Not to Feed the Trolls - trolls eat bandwidth up
like nobody's business, and pretty soon whole days are taken up by
responses to their inanities).
As time goes by I find myself more and more likely, getting to the end
of a possibly sharp or vindictive response, to simply kill the post and
take what pleasure I can from not having shared that particular piece of
small-mindedness with the group. In the end our most valuable
contributions to groups like this can be the gift of being able to walk
away from a fight simply to keep the noise level down.
so-now-thank-me-for-not-saying-all-that-crap-ly y'rs - steve
