I read a lot of mailing-list messages. There are two sorts of messages that turn up as often as twice a week. Both are superficially technical, but have these common themes: 
 

In my work for a prominent software company, I have an exceedingly subtle and difficult task to perform. I have not read any of the hundreds of pages relevant to my question, preloaded and indexed for me, in my computer. Please write my program.

 
or 

I am a senior programmer in an extensive Macintosh project for a famous software company, but am barren of knowledge so elementary and foundational that even a thoughtful guess would adequately answer my question. Please read the manuals to me.

 
 
Both have the same coda: 
 

Answer me immediately. I will repeat this message every two hours. I may stop if I get a response.

 
 
Often, the famous company is one that famously substituted their current programming staff for their previous one. So these requests often amount to, "I took your job. Please continue to do it for free, so your ex-bosses will think I am competent." 
 
Now see here: The people responding to questions on mailing lists are volunteers, who are (or ought to be) highly-paid for their regular work as developers. They are not subject to your demand that they drop everything and turn their hands to work you should be doing yourself.  
 
Stop it. 
 
(I find I write more in dispraise than praise, which I think may be a character flaw. At least I can segregate the bile in its own category.) 

@ January 25, 2006 3:24:33 PM CST ( )