To google or not..

[Alfred Huger <ah () securityfocus com>]

All,

Every now and then the topic comes up about google and people searching
before they ask. Inevitably it breaks into two camps. One that believes
that people post already having researched issues and people who believe
the posters who do this are simply lazy.

I am in the middle. On this list we have users who range from phenomenally
skilled and people who are entirely new and have to build those skills.
This is a community holding both sides of the spectrum. I personally am
fine with people occasionally posting very basic questions which could
easily be answered with some googling. It allows for people to
communicate, build relationships and generally be social. Its my
experience that the average set of social skills carried in this industry
would shame a rabid dog. A little discourse is not going to kill anybody.
That being said I still drop maybe 90% of these types of questions (and
trust me there are allot) so I think ultimately both camps are being
served.

Cheers,
-al


Alfred Huger
Symantec Corp.