XP Guy wrote:
Full-Quoter "Olórin" wrote:

"Even I" can't answer the question?

What - you can't read?

Yes. Even YOU can't answer the question.

Well, you sure as **** can't;

Brilliant Sherlock. Maybe that's why I'm asking you dimwit.

My point here was your demeaning use of the word "even". Well, "even you"
don't know the answer either, so don't slag off others who (you think)
don't.

snip

Whatever I may have been telling everyone else, the one thing
I *was* trying to tell you has clearly gone right over your
immature head.

And just what was that *one* thing you were trying to tell me?

Did it have anything to do with answering my original question?

Okay, I'll spell it out. You didn't get the answer you wanted. Instead of
either correcting without abuse, or moving on and waiting for other answers,
you chose to lay in to people. So when you then asked, "Now can we get back
to answering this question?" I replied with, "Not with that attitude...
you're the supplicant here." What I was trying to say here, and it clearly
was too subtle for you somehow, is that your rudeness may well put people
off *wanting* to answer you - it certainly did me. My post obviously didn't
help you technically; nor was that its aim, which I'd thought was equally
obvious. If you'd learned a lesson and (heaven forfend) apologised for your
lambasting, it's just possible that someone might have had a change of heart
and chipped in with a nugget of information you found useful. You're the one
coming here asking volunteers for help; you'd do well to remember that.

Yes, answers may have been off-base; and as I said, I "understand your
frustration to a degree". But in case you didn't realise, part of the
question-and-answer process in these groups can go along the lines of:

Q: I'm trying to do X. Is this possible, and how?

A: Well, it might be, but why are you trying? I suspect you may be trying to
achieve This Goal, in which case you would be better off doing Y then Z.

Possible response 1: Oh yeah, I see, thanks for that, that's what I needed,
got it working now.

Possible response 2: OK, but actually I really do need to do X, because of
this-and-this [which I didn't bother saying in my OP]. Any more ideas,
anyone?

Possible response 3: Why can't you people just answer the god damn question?

A recent example was when someone asked how to turn off auto-compaction in
OE. The answer the OP adopted was, "You shouldn't do that because your store
will sooner or later get corrupted if you do." Sometimes the answer is
"mu" - neither "yes" nor "no" but "unask the question" or "there is no
answer because the question as stated depends on incorrect assumptions."

People here are volunteers, willing and trying to help, and deserve the
benefit of your doubt, not to mention common courtesy. [My exception here to
"benefit of the doubt" is Andrew E., who regularly provides partially or
completely wrong information that is a danger to others. He's something of a
hit-and-run driver: only ever makes one post in a thread then moves on,
never defending himself or apologising.] If you want to toddle off and get
paid-for support with justifiable recourse for wrong or off-base answers,
feel free.

If you'd wanted to have a serious exchange about this, with no abuse
involved, I'd continue with this sub-thread. But as you can't seem to manage
to do that, this is end of thread for me. Have the last word if you must,
I'm sure it'll be scintillating; but I won't be reading it.