Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 21:37:57 -0800 (PST) From: Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com> To: Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org> Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: PCI DMA lockups in 3.2 (3.3 maybe?) Message-ID: <199912050537.VAA59166@apollo.backplane.com> References: <199912042247.OAA05083@mass.cdrom.com>
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: - Dennis is a principal in a company which manufactures communications
: peripherals and writes driver software for them. It's not
: unreasonable to expect him to have some sort of idea, or access to an
: in-house idea, about how to go about diagnosing a problem like this.
: It's also not unreasonable to expect that, being involved in a
: development environment, that he would have some experience in
: reporting problems in a fashion that would allow action to be taken to
: resolve them.
:
: - We have been dealing with Dennis for many years. He has persisted in
: his defective communications style despite many well-meaning attempts
: to encourage him to improve. At this point in time, he has worn out
: his welcome with many of us and if anything it's a credit to our
: stamina that we still even listen to him anymore.
:
: - Irregardless of your initial presumptions concerning Dennis' ability,
: the fact remains that he failed to follow through on the encouragement
: to provide more information, and thus (again) we were unable to
: actually provide him with any more assistance. Now he comes back a
: few weeks later to complain again, still not providing any more
: information. Which side is falling down in this relationship?
Mike, if your idea of encouragement is an attitude of superiority, it's
no wonder you aren't getting results. Has it ever occured to you that
perhaps the fault for having to deal with this situation 'for years'
might be partially attributed to the way your attitude colors your
postings? It is perfectly possible that when this all began the person
was in the wrong, but at this point the manner in which you respond to
his bug reports only perpetuates the problem.
I answer a lot of newbie questions on these lists, and if you read them
you will note that I try to be helpful - if I'm going to answer someone's
question or bug report, I don't give one line answers, I don't make
assumptions as to a person's experience or abilities, and I don't put
people who ask questions or post simple (or simplistic) bug reports down.
I give suggestions only and I usually back up those suggestions with
examples.
If those people take the time to even ask a question or post a bug report
in this list that appears to be reasonable, whether simplistic or not,
then they deserve the best answer that can be given to them - one that
does not automatically make assumptions as to abilities, intelligence, or
character. That is the goal you (and a number of others) need to strive
for.
I fully realize that some developers have become frustated in the last few
years -- I have especially noticed that with Jordan (sorry Jordan!) in
the coloring of their answers to others. But putting someone down who has
made a reasonable posting to the list based on past presence only
perpetuates the problem (and here I am talking about other posters and
not taking issue with myself, I've made plenty of bad postings but they
tend to not be 'sticky' unless there's an ongoing problem. Hmm. Only one
person is on my list that fits that bill at the moment if you don't count
my general distate for core's mis-execution of their polcies and
continuing 'extra' restrictions on my commit privs for no good reason).
-Matt
Matthew Dillon
<dillon@backplane.com>
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