Re: Xnews refuses to start, please help

Marshall Price said:

Blinky the Shark wrote:
New users should look at all the configuration
settings....

Should schmood!

My therapist would say you're should-ing on yourself -- and just this
once, I'd agree with her!

I want to _do_ things with my computer, not take on a lifetime task of
hunting down nerdy techno-speak.

It's not a ball and glove, it's a bit more complicated than that. That
"nerdy techno-speak", as you call it, is a big part of what you'll need to
know, in order to "_do_ things" with your computer. Accept that fact and
move on. It's really the only way to advance. Oh, you could stay and whine
about it, but that will quickly lead to thanatoidosis, which is something
you DON'T want to happen, trust me.

Telling newcomers to a software program that they ought to read a manual

Is pretty basic, sound advice. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble by
doing so. There are instruction manuals for EVERY consumer product that you
purchase. Do you ignore them all, and run right to the telephone to call
for instructions?

(and then go online and look up everything they don't understand

In case you're new, and haven't yet noticed, the Internet's a pretty cool
effin' place. You can find just about anything there is, about just about
everything there is, *IF* you ask the right questions, and you take the
time to read a little bit. Usually, with enough searching, you're bound to
find the answer in a format you can understand. If you're still stuck,
there are places to actually ask your questions, and get answers from
actual people.

But, think about it. Those people give their time freely to try and help
answer questions you (and others, TONS of others) may have. But, they get
tired of answering the most common questions. You know, the ones that are
usually answered within the first few pages (albeit, more often than not,
the first few PARAGRAPHS) of the manual.

The user could have saved EVERYONE involved some time, if they'd done a
little legwork first. But, no! They'd rather be lazy, and have someone else
do everything for them. They're busy, you know; those users. They've no
time to learn about their shiny new program. Those *other* people in the
newsgroups (or wherever) don't have anything better to do than answer
questions over and over!

-- as if everything they found wouldn't lead to ten times as many
things to look up!)

Yeah, isn't that interesting? It's called learning.

is tantamount to saying,

Oboy, here it comes...

"This software isn't for you. You might consider coming back after two
or three semesters of computer science -- but in the meanwhile, get lost!"

| tan·ta·mount
| adj.
|
| Equivalent in effect or value: a request tantamount to a demand.

How is pointing someone to the place where they can look up their answer,
and most answers they'll have in the future, "equivalent in effect or
value", to telling them to "get lost"? That's one of the most absurd
analogies that I think I've ever read!


We could actually investigate Thunderbird's (or Xnews's) "configuration
settings", of course, and see what I mean.

You'll probably have people telling you what page of the manual your
answers are on, but that would never do, would it.


What really irritates me about "the manual" (all manuals) is that
they're so poorly written.

From what I understand, Xnews' manual is pretty thorough. Or would you
rather see something like:

See ***.
See *** press the Xnews launch button.
Launch, Xnews, launch.
Launch. Launch. Launch.


Would you rather a manual in such a format? Would that get you over the
hump you seem to be stuck on?

They drive me nuts!

Then, maybe computers aren't for you. Now, get lost.

--
Eggs

-A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
.