Re: Digests/reading instructions

[Gwen Gall <ggall -at- CA -dot- ORACLE -dot- COM>]

In-Reply-To: CNSEQ1:TECHWR-L -at- VM1 -dot- ucc -dot- okstate -dot- edu's message of 07-26-94 14:49

LaVonna says:

I don't wish to attack any particular persons, but this relates
to the piano practice room story. Isn't it funny that even
tech writers don't read the instructions that they are given?
"How to get digests" and "How to unsubscribe" are just two of
the topics in the message that each of us received when we
first subscribed to this list, yet these questions still
come up on occasion.
*************************

Touche. It's especially annoying that people forget that when they
subscribed to the list, they emailed the listserver....unsubscribe username
messages really bug me....especially those who keep sending "Please
unsubscribe me...I've asked several times, and nothing happens!" You'd
think it would occur to them to go back and look at those instructions if
it didn't seem to be working!

Luckily, writers are generally smarter than other people ;-) and I've only seen
_that_ on _other_ lists.

My anecdote on the subject, for anyone interested:

My husband Greg works in a large office where everyone needs to use the new HP
DesignJet plotter. People kept asking Greg how to do things, because they
saw him doing them. Then, the _principal user_ of the plotter, a guy who has
to plot out planning diagrams all the time, asked Greg how he knew so much
about the plotter....Greg replied that he had read the manual. The response:
"Gee, that's a good idea. I hadn't thought of that."

BTW: if whoever wrote the HP DesignJet manual is on this list, Greg liked it.


Take care, and may your dog go with you,

Gwen