Re: [SQL] Unanswered Questions WAS: An unresolved performance problem.

Folks,

I suspect that a good number of fairly simple questions aren't being
answered because they're either misdirected or because the poster
hasn't included an "answerable" question (one with sufficient
information to answer).

A suggestion to partially counter this, at least for "slow query" type
questions, has been put forth. If we make it a social norm on the
pg-lists in general to reply off-list to inadequately descriptive "slow
query" questions with a canned message of helpful guidance, we may be
able to up the level of "answerability" of most questions. Ideally,
this would make the questions more transparent, so that more responses
can come from folks other than the major contributors.

Thoughts? Josh and I have placed a draft at
http://techdocs.postgresql.org/guides/SlowQueryPostingGuidelines

I'd specifically like to hear whether people would suggest more of an
emphasis on heuristics for self-help in such a message, what other info
should be included in a "good" slow query question, and people's
thoughts on the netiquette of the whole idea.

Best,

Randall

On Wednesday, May 7, 2003, at 12:57 PM, Josh Berkus wrote:

> Gaetano,
>
>> I seen around a lot of questions are remaining without any reply,
>> may be in this period the guys like Tom Lane are too busy.
>
> Yes, they are. Currently the major contributors are working hard to
> shape up
> both 7.3.3. and 7.4 (and having a long-running discussion about the
> due date
> for 7.4), so they don't have much time for questions.
>
> And for my part, I'm too busy with my paying job to answer all the
> questions
> that get posted, as I suspect are Stephan and Bruno and several other
> people
> who field newbie questions. Given the flood of requests, I have to
> prioritize ... and a question which is missing several crucial details
> (like
> a copy of the query!!!) is going to get answered way later than a
> question
> which provides all the needed information -- if at all.
>
> --
> -Josh Berkus
> Aglio Database Solutions
> San Francisco
>
>
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