Page correction

[Kevin Godby]

Hi, Tom.

On Sat, Dec 13, 2014 at 3:42 PM, Tom Davies <tomcecf at gmail.com> wrote:
> I agree that Kevin's answer is better but i think that is exactly what Peter
> was aiming for.  Peter's answer is ambiguous but i read it as him
> encouraging the person and informing them that they do have the authority to
> make the change themselves.

Well, I did characterize it in the most unfavorable light to make a
point. Peter isn't really saying, 'Leave me alone and go fix it
yourself!' But sometimes the concise and rather abrupt responses can
be read that way by the unsuspecting.

> The only problem with Kevin's approach is that assumes the person is unable
> to cope and a bit useless.  It's an excellent follow-up answer after giving
> the person enough time to try to figure it out for themselves, or after the
> person had got back to the mailing list querying how to do the editing.

My response does err on the side of giving them all the information up
front. When I was originally writing it, I considered just dropping in
a link, e.g., 'Please visit <http://help.ubuntu.com/blahblah> to learn
how you can edit wiki pages,' but I feared the link I found may be
more involved than the quick getting-started instructions I ended up
writing.  (I also confess to being too lazy to dig up an appropriate
link!)

I think it's better to provide the instructions because we do see a
fair number of emails to this list from people saying they can't edit
a wiki page. The rather non-obvious step is that you have to log in
first. So I decided to provide that information up front instead of
waiting for a follow-up email.

That paragraph could certainly be saved for a follow-up email, however.

> Peter is an excellent chap and very helpful and supportive so i'm sad to see
> one of his posts receiving criticism.  I'd guess that Kevin knows Peter can
> "take it on the chin" because they are such good friends.  HOwever i've not
> been paying much attention so i felt the urge to "stick up for" Peter jic.
> I'd do the same if it was the other way around of course.

To be clear, I'm not writing to pick on Peter or any individual. The
somewhat blunt responses are fairly common in bug reports and email
postings from many of us. I just happened to have a bit of time this
morning to write down my thoughts on it.

—Kevin