[texhax] confused queries...

[Philip Taylor]

Robin Fairbairns wrote:

> you get a tex live disc from a friend, ..., you ...try to get it 
> going. you fail, ..., you ask tug about it,. ..., you find yourself
> swimming in a bed of vipers who are enraged that you think you're
> talking to a commercial outfit.

> as a parting shot, you get a mail saying you "got what [you]
> deserved".

In general, I would agree with Robin that the viperish responses
that are sometimes sent by a few members of this list who feel
themselves so enlightened that it is their right to be critical
of others are something to be deprecated.  However, I suspect that
Robin's message in this particular instance is motivated by
a correspondence that was initiated with the subject "Complaints"
(my belief is motivated by Robin's recycling of a particularly notable
phrase that was used in one of such replies).  And in this instance,
most unusually, I /do/ agree with the respondent that the originator
of the query "got what [he/she] deserved".  The originator appears
to lack all social skills -- he (and I am assuming from the forename
that the originator was a man) /complains/ that something that he
was given free, gratis, as a benefit of TUG membership, does not do
what he wants.  He does not ask "Dear fellow TeX users -- can you
help me with a problem ?"; he /complains/ that this free package
"insults [his] mother, etc.".  I am afraid that someone who is clearly
in need of help, but is apparently incapable of asking for it in
an appropriate way, is highly unlikely to receive the help that
he so clearly needs.

Philip Taylor