--On 3 August 2005 18:12:02 +0200 Christian Schmidt
<christian@???> wrote:
> Marc Perkel, 03.08.2005 (d.m.y):
>
>> Besides, everyone is using this forum for support.
>
> This is not a forum, either...
Oh, FFS that depends on what you mean by "forum". For those of you who
don't speak any natural human language, let me explain:
Natural human languages support overloading of tokens. One token can have
many meanings depending on context. Context in this case can mean more than
just the rest of the sentence. Sometimes, in order to properly parse input,
you have to make several substitutions in order for a given assertion to be
acceptable as true. Let's try that for the token 'forum' in the sentence
above.
1) "Besides, everyone is using this forum [=a place of assembly for the
people in ancient Greece] for support."
Well, that doesn't parse, because nothing in the context is in ancient
Greece. They didn't have SMTP servers, for example!
2) "Besides, everyone is using this forum [=Large, public square] for
support."
No, this isn't a large public square.
3) "Besides, everyone is using this forum [= online discussion group.
Forums can be newsgroups, or they can be Web-based. ] for support."
Oh, he could mean this. The general context is quite close - but the
definition doesn't cover email lists.
4) "Besides, everyone is using this forum [=an online community where
visitors may read and post topics of common interest] for support."
Ah, that must be what Mark meant. The definition is loose enough that
it could apply to a mailing list. Everything else works in this context.
When we apply the same technique to the word 'support', I think there are
definitions that work here, too. Certainly there are no contracts that say
anyone has to provide answers to questions - but if people didn't come here
looking for answers to questions about Exim, then there wouldn't be much
traffic on the list.
People come here for support, and they get it. That's great. If they can
support others through this forum, or another, then that's even better. For
example, Marc made a wiki entry about the IMAP authentication.
--
Ian Eiloart
Servers Team
Sussex University ITS
