[WikiEN-l] Reference Desk questions

[Ray Saintonge]

Poor, Edmund W wrote:

>Judy Inman inman at powerweb.net wrote:
>
>>I was wondering if there is some way I could get a list 
>>of the people who died in the Spain Madrid terrorists 
>>attach on the trains. Thank You
>>
>I've started getting one or two inquiries like this, each week, and I'm
>wondering how to handle them.
>
>1. Approve the post, so it's passed on to the mailing list?
>
>2. Reject the post with the default explanation: 
>   "Non-members are not allowed to post messages to this 
>   list."
>
>3. Refer the person to some sort of Reference Desk on the 
>   Wikipedia website?
>
Either 1 or 3 is a good choice.  2 strikes me as rude and evasive, and 
for you to do that would be very Poor PR.

Pedro has given an answer and there is no need for him to apologize.

Using 1 does not put anyone under the obligation to answer.  If we can 
be seen as willing to help people with queries of this sort it's all for 
the better.  Fortunately, Pedro was able to give specific help, but even 
making the suggestion that I would look for the information on the 
Website for a Madrid newspaper is a friendly act.  

Of course we need to recognize it when some kid is trying to get us to 
do his homework.  I never even give my own son a straight answer when 
he's trying to do that. :-)

Ec