procmail
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Re: Delete a specific EXE

2001-12-01 05:51:30
From: Charlie Summers <charlie(_at_)lofcom(_dot_)com>

At 5:10 PM -0500 11/30/01, Sam is rumored to have typed:

If you are not willing to help, and only want to insult people, why
do you even bother reading this list?

   (*sigh*) I didn't insult you. I pointed out that you couldn't have
read the man pages, or at least couldn't have understood what you
read, since at least part of the answer is sitting right there, and
the rest is sitting at the FAQ, and the question has been answered a
boatload of times on the mailing list because other people didn't read
the man pages, FAQ, and mailing list archives. If you choose to take
that as an insult, so be it...but please note that I never called you
or anyone else a, "twit," I mearly tried to more politely tell you
what Mr. Ross was saying. The only person I see being insulting is
you.

Sorry about beating a dead horse, but: so far, I've agreed with
everything that Charlie has said on-list - except for one small point:
I didn't think I was being impolite, either.  In fact, I chose my words
carefully, did no name-calling, cast no aspersions on the intelligence
or twitliness of Sam, and didn't begrudge that he is coming from a place
of not knowing procmail.  I followed up in private email with similar
care.  I, too, merely stated facts as they were to be deduced from
Sam's original query.

I didn't tell Sam to go away.  I told him to read first, then
ask again with specifics if and when he had trouble with what he
read.  The original mail he'd sent flashed blaringly red at me
that he hadn't done much, if any, self-help research first.
If, as he continues to claim, he did, then he shot himself in
the foot by not formulating his question to demonstrate that
he had.

For example, if he wrote about what he'd read in the man pages
and asked how it could be applied in his specific case, I would
be glad to answer, as would many here.  If he showed us his failed
recipe and log excerpts, I'd have been glad to answer, as would
many here.  Etc.

From my private email to Sam before being called a self-righteous
twit on-list:

dr> Read the FAQ that Charlie pointed to.  Try a couple
dr> of things.  If it doesn't work, write us back with
dr> some details.  Make sure you are using a log
dr> that is called from the .procmailrc.


   And I _did_ offer to help you. Indeed, I told you where to look to
acquire the knowledge you'll need to ask the proper questions. (You
asked if procmail could be used for a specific purpose. You should be
lucky you didn't just get a bunch of replies saying nothing more than,
"Yes.")

I thought it was a very good follow-up to an all-too-common
problem.  I don't think anybody here as anything against newbies.
We only wish that they'd demonstrate the willingness to learn
to fish, not merely to eat our catch.

I wasn't asking for a handout. Just a hand.

You didn't demonstrate it with any visible clue.  If you had, you would
have gotten more than one handout, on top of the hand you did get from
Charlie.  If, as you now say, you've been reading along here for a
while, you would have done well to say so.  We aren't mind-readers.
Nothing you wrote indicated one iota of prior effort on your part.  If
it was there, then a sentence or two assuring us of same would have
worked wonders.

-- dman
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