[BBLISA] Appreciate the help...

[David Allan]

On Wed, 23 Jan 2008, Scott Ehrlich wrote:
> I try not to wear out the list, but do what the list was created for - 
> discussion and inquiry of UNIX and related topics.

I don't think you'll wear out the list, but I would like clearer 
statements about the user's goals along with the technical questions. 
Writing down the user's goals frequently exposes assumptions that totally 
alter the technical (or perhaps non-technical) solution.  The purely 
technical question you ask the list, although you will eventually get an 
accurate answer, may not be the question that you need to ask in order to 
make the user happy.  People reading the list aren't going to pick up on 
that without background.

I'm *not* trying to discourage you from posting, but writing up a clear 
statement of the user's goals is admittedly a non-trivial thing.  Writing 
it will also prevent you from banging out a question without having 
thought it through completely, which will ultimately save you (and 
everybody who responds) the time and effort of going down a dead-end 
investigation.

I am also aware that many organizations contain political issues or lack 
of trust or economic/staffing constraints that make it impossible to do 
this kind of analysis.  If that's the case for you, that's a different 
problem.

Just my $.02,
Dave