[prog] Re : Comments on response to closure: what next?

[Jimen Ching]

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007, Olusola Fadero wrote:
> The only programming newbies I've met who are scared of asking "dumb"
> questions tend to be female.

I noticed this too.  Not only that, but I also noticed that the word 
'dumb' is used, as opposed to the words 'right' and 'wrong'.  It's ok to 
ask the 'wrong question,' if you don't know the 'right question' to ask. 
This is especially necessary if you're not familiar with a topic.  Asking 
the right question requires that you know something about the subject. 
So asking the wrong question is usually the only way to start your journey 
towards solving your problem if you're completely new to the topic.

If this is the main reason why this list has such a low bandwidth, perhaps 
there needs to be an introduction that explicitely states that 'dumb' and 
'wrong' questions (as long as they're programming questions) are allowed. 
If low bandwidth is the problem, then I think an attempt at increasing 
bandwidth should be done, instead of just closing the list.  If this fails 
to increase bandwidth, then I don't think there's anyone who would object 
to closing the list.  What's the point of subscribing to a list that no 
one uses?

--jc
-- 
Jimen Ching (WH6BRR)      jching at flex.com     wh6brr at uhm.ampr.org