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248 lines
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<title>Asking Questions of The Answer Gang</title>
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<h1>
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Asking Questions of The Answer Gang</h1>
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Updated Sep 12 2003<br>
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Please send any corrections and additions to Ben Okopnik <ben@callahans.org>
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<p>
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<pre>In the world of hackers, the kind of answers you get to your technical
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questions depends as much on the way you ask the questions as on the
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difficulty of developing the answer. This guide will teach you how to ask
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questions in a way that is likely to get you a satisfactory answer.
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-- Eric S. Raymond, "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way"</pre>
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<p>This document draws heavily on several sources, including Tad McClellan's
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<a href="http://mail.augustmail.com/~tadmc/clpmisc/clpmisc_guidelines.text">
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Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc</a> and the
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<a href="http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html">
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Netiquette Guidelines RFC</a>.
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<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html">
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How to Ask Smart Questions</a> by Eric S. Raymond and Rick Moen is also
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strongly recommended as a general guide to getting good Net.answers.
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<p><b>General Info About The Gang</b>
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<p>
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The Answer Gang is a group of volunteers at the
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<a href="../index.html"> Linux Gazette</a>. It is the source
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of the Gazette's tech support columns,
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<a href="../issue87/lg_mail.html">The Mailbag</a>,
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<a href="../issue87/lg_tips.html">2-Cent Tips</a>,
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and <a href="../issue87/lg_answer.html">The Answer Gang</a>.
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To gather relevant questions to respond to, we run an open mailing list
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where anyone is welcome to ask their Linux-related questions.
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<p>
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<a href="bios.html">Each member of The Gang</a> has a set
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of Linux-relevant interests, skills, and abilities; whether you get an
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answer or not depends on how well you engage those. There is no guarantee
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that your question will be answered at all: however, interesting questions
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of broad scope (i.e., those that would be of interest to a number of our
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readers), especially presented by folks who are pleasant, polite, and have
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a sense of humor are not likely to be ignored.
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<A NAME="humor">
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<p><b>Be Warned:</b> The answers themselves may range from friendly to
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gruff and often contain sharp humor, horseplay, fluff, pedantry, and
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pontification; the discussion spawned by your question may well wander
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off-topic and possibly back on again - with all of this reflected in your
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mailbox. Thin-skinned folks, those who expect "their answer" and nothing
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else, and narrow-minded people are urged to take the appropriate
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precautions. (Yellow helmets and fire- and bullet-proof underwear are
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available in the shop just off the main lobby.)
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<br>
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<hr width="100%">
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<p><b>BEFORE POSTING</b>
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<p>Here's something you can do right away that will greatly increase your
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chances of "winning the TAG lottery", even before you fire up your e-mail
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software: <i>prequalify</i> your question by running it through the following
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info-gauntlet. If it comes through without being answered, we'd be interested
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in at least looking at this rare beast - and you'll gain status points
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by telling us about having done this and the results you got.
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<p><b>Check your local resources:</b>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Run your program with a "-h"or "--help" option</li>
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<li>
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Use your man pages (type "man <i>program_name</i>")</li>
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<li>
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Try info if you have it installed ("info <i>program_name</i>")</li>
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<li>
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Read the program documentation (usually found in "/usr/doc/<i>program_name</i>"
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or "/usr/share/doc/<i>program_name</i>")</li>
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</ul>
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<p><br><b>Use the Web:</b>
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<ul>
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<li>Do a web search - <a href="http://www.google.com/linux/">Google!/Linux</a>, etc.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p><br><b>Check out the LG treasure trove:</b>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="../tag/kb.html">The Answer Gang's Knowledge Base</a></li>
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<li><a href="../faq/index.html">The Linux Gazette FAQ</a></li>
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<li><a href="../search.html">Search the previous issues of LG</a></li>
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<li>
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Check the <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/">list of
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HOWTOs</a> for relevant topics - these offer detailed coverage of many
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Linux tasks</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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<p><b>POSTING TO TAG</b>
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<br>
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<A NAME="not_linux">
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<li>
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<b>Question should be about Linux, or of interest to Linux community</b></li>
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<br>The Linux Gazette has a rather obvious and clearly stated purpose;
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our target readership is the Linux community. We may post humorous pieces,
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or "spam slams", or other non-Linux content - but in general, that's not
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what we do. We don't usually give out advice on cooking rhubarb, passing
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tests in American history, or making your Wind*ws program work... actually,
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we have done all of those in the past, but relying on it would be just
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plain silly. Confine your questions to Linux-specific or Linux-related
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content.
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<br>
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<A NAME="bad_subject">
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<li>
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<b>Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header</b></li>
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<br>You have 40 precious characters of Subject in which to make your first
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impression. Spend them indicating what problem we can expect to find in
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your query. Don't waste them telling us about your experience level ("Guru",
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"Newbie"...) Don't waste them pleading ("Please read", "Urgent", "HELP!!!"...)
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Don't waste them on non-subjects ("Linux question", "Could I ask a question?"...)
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Part of the beauty of Net forum dynamics is that you can contribute to
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the community with your very first post! If your choice of subject leads
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a fellow searcher to find the thread you are starting, then even asking
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a question helps us all.
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<br>
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<A NAME="doesnt_work">
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<li>
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<b>Beware of saying "doesn't work"</b></li>
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<br>This is a "red flag" phrase, one that gives no useful information and
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tends to annoy the people who are trying to help you. If you find yourself
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writing it, pause and see if you can't describe what is not working without
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saying "doesn't work". That is, describe how it is not what you want. Try
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to explain the problem to another person using only words (i.e., don't
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<i>show</i> it to them - just describe it.) If they can understand what you
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mean, write down the explanation you used and send it to us!
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<br>
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<A NAME="bad_style">
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<li>
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<b>Use an effective follow-up style</b></li>
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<br>When composing a reply, intersperse your comments <i>following</i> the
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sections of quoted text that you're replying to. There's a good guide on
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quoting in the <a href="http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote2.html">
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Quoting and Answering</a> section of "How Do I Quote Correctly On Usenet?";
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knowing how to do is a skill that will serve you not only here but in any
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mailing list or Usenet forum.
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<br>
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<A NAME="no_info">
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<li>
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<b>Provide enough, but not too much information </b></li>
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<br>
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(<i>Heather Stern "The EditorGal"'s addendum, with modifications</i>)
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<br><b><i>Too Much Info</i></b>: Where you bought the computer and whether
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you still have a receipt. What color the case is. Your passwords or anything
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else you wouldn't discuss in the bookstore or at a picnic.
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<br><b><i>Not Enough Info</i></b>: "So I plugged everything in but it doesn't
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work."
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<p>Questions whose answers (from you) would give us enough to run with:
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<blockquote>What, exactly, did you plug in? Into what?
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<br>What did you expect to happen?
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<br>What happened instead?
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<br>What were the exact error messages?
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<br>What have you changed since then?
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<br>Where does Linux come into the puzzle? (feel free to guess)
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<br>Which Linux distribution?
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<br>Which version of the problem software package (<i>you <b>did</b> upgrade
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to the latest one, right?)</i> are you using?</blockquote>
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For a more complete treatment of this topic, see Simon Tatham's excellent
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<a href="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html">How
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to Report Bugs Effectively</a>.
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<br>
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<A NAME="non_text">
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<li>
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<b>Send text-only content</b></li>
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<br>Plain text is something that any mail program can read. Don't post
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Word documents, PDFs, HTML, or MIME (a number of stupidly-designed e-mail
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programs do this by default; here are the
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<a href="http://expita.com/nomime.html">instructions</a>
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for turning many of them off); your question will not be easily readable
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if you do, and that often spells "delete". Binary attachments sent to The
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Answer Gang are thrown into the trash basket without even a glance. Yes,
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we are aware that MIME Quoted-Printable can be useful in preserving non-English
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character sets, but mail to TAG in a language other than English is very
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rare. Use it when it's necessary; avoid it otherwise.
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<br>
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<A NAME="confidential">
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<li>
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<b>Remove all "confidential" notices or cancel them explicitly (asking
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for your name not to be posted is OK)</b></li>
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<br>Published answers benefit the entire community; this is what we do
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here in TAG. If you have a "This is to be kept confidential" blurb in your
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post, forget about having it answered: it just isn't going to happen. Don't
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expect people to do one-on-one problem resolution unless you're willing
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to pay for it. If your company automatically glues a "confidential" tag
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to all your e-mail, either e-mail us from home or preface your question
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with an explicit permission for us to publish. In fact, here's one you
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can simply copy and paste:
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<blockquote>
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<pre>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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I hereby give my explicit permission for the Linux Gazette to publish the
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material in this e-mail, as well as all future responses or discussion that
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result from it. This notice supersedes all other restrictions.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------</pre>
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</blockquote>
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(<i>Heather Stern "The EditorGal"'s addendum</i>) If you know that it includes
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some sort of message about who it's intended for, you can make that more
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clear. This example asks for anonymizing...
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<ul class = "noindent">
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<pre>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The intended recipient of this message is the readership of the world wide
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webzine "Linux Gazette". Any responses or discussion with the Answer Gang
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or any LG editor may be published worldwide. Please don't reveal my last
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name, email address, or company.
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...This notice supersedes any and all other attached restrictions. Thanks!
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------</pre>
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</ul>
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Note that we normally hide your company anyway, unless you are with a company
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that helps maintain the application being discussed. But email addresses
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are normally shown with Tips, in case the readers have any comments.
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<p>
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<hr width="100%">
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<p>So - you've already done one of The Right Things by reading this document;
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presumably, you've already done more than one Right Thing by working through
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the preceding list. If you still haven't found an answer, go ahead and
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<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">send your question to The
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Answer Gang</a> - we'll be glad to hear from you!
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</body>
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