From: James Britt <james.britt@...>
Date: 2007-05-04T03:36:18+09:00
Subject: Re: how to increase the width of a field in rails

Rick DeNatale wrote:
> On 5/3/07, anansi <kazaam@oleco.net> wrote:
> 
>> well first of all I didn't knew that this newsgroup is limited to just
>> some aspects of ruby, maybe you should do some white- or black-listing
>> on topics if you think mine wouldn't fit here.
>> But every question I droped was answered here very fast and correclty
>> because as I thought it is obvious that many ppl who uses the Rails
>> framework also suscribed to the ruby-list.
> 
> This may be, but in general, you'll find more rails expertise on the
> rails group.  I've seen lots of rails-related questions go unanswered
> here because no one with the right rails knowledge saw it.

More generally, people are asked to direct library-specific questions to 
  their specific lists or forums because there are many, many Ruby 
libraries and apps.

It may be simplest for you to post Rails questions to the general Ruby 
list, but the same holds true for people with questions abut Nitro, 
Mechanize, Mongrel, RedCloth, Capistrano, and so on.  If people are 
freely asking and answering Rails-specific questions here, I would 
expect other people to feel, quite understandably, entitled to ask their 
own library-specific questions here as well.  And everyone loses in the 
end because of the noise level.  There's a *reason* for these other lists.

There is not always a clear line as to when a question belongs on one 
list or another, but for the most part, if a list or group exists for an 
app or library, that's the place to try first.  I empathize with people 
who have trouble getting help on other lists, but only to the extent 
they've shown good faith in trying to do it the right way first.

While I'm disappointed (but, sadly, not too surprised) at the tone of 
some people who responded to you, they are ultimately correct.

You'll win no friends here by complaining about having to use Google 
groups in order to learn Rails.

-- 
James Britt

"In Ruby, no one cares who your parents were, all they care
  about is if you know  what you are talking about."
   - Logan Capaldo