I don’t know why, in addition to being helpful, certain people regularly berate and belittle forum users for the inadequacy of their research prior to posting a question. Is that sort of arrogance necessary? Productive? What if you simply chose not to submit such replies? It would save you some time, it would reduce the number of not-so-helpful things people needed to sort through in order to find useful information, and it would improve the tone of the forums. Is there a downside to that approach? I’ve worked with some brilliant people - leaders in their areas of biomedical research - and I’ve seen first hand that intelligence doesn’t require the ill treatment of others. It may be time for the DEVONtechnologies staff to have a word about benevolence with their volunteer gods.
It is true that one should not give terse answers to users asking clear question but Bill’s reply, as terse as it it, should point into the right direction.
Eric’s response, which I suggest be moved here and the duplicate post in that other thread be removed.
Bill isn’t even close to a big offender on this issue, which is why I moved the post to a new thread. My guess is that you have more than a few users who have felt personally attacked by the very thinly veiled, obviously tongue-in-cheek, arrogant and scolding tone of more than a few volunteer replies. And, I suspect that those and others are also put off when reading through that sort of discourse even if it isn’t aimed at them; I know I am. This is the last time I’ll comment on it, but I think the company and it’s excellent products would be better served if the tone of these exchanges was much more about offering humble and kind assistance and less about humbling others in some this-is-how-much-smarter-I-am-than-you put down. Maybe take the approach of a good scientist - use the data to describe/support the conclusions, and leave out the emotional commentary.
I apologize if my response seemed less than helpful, but I’m also a bit amused as that’s not my customary type of response, which probably errs more on the side of verbosity. 
The fact was that I had no personal knowledge of Ammonite, and did a quick Web search and a search of the forum and Eric’s Blog, and recommended the forum and Blog because there were several comments about the current status of Ammonite – interesting, but buggy at present.
But I agree that the appearance of brushing off questions by admonishing new users to do searches is generally not helpful. New users may not be familiar with the terminology of DEVONthink, for example. Even a reference to an existing forum discussion by experienced users may seem mysterious to a new user, and so may not be very helpful without further assistance. Another important point is that the DEVONthink applications are evolving and there have been numerous changes over time, so that some of the information in older forum posts isn’t relevant to a current application – that can be confusing to a newcomer who hasn’t “lived through” the development of DEVONthink.
The forum has generally served quite well as a medium of exchange of information and mutual assistance. Personally, I’ve learned a great deal from the experience of others.
Bill, if you are not the big offender on this issue, then then I can only assume that I am, as only the two of us had posted in this thread before it took a different turn. I apologize to all the forum members if some of my efforts to assist have been perceived as arrogant, or anything less than helpful. It is certainly not my intention to be anything less than civil and helpful when posting a response.
Unlike Bill, I do not have a proclivity to err on the side of verbosity. I am more inclined to a) provide my results without necessarily describing the ‘why or why not’ (searching for Ammonite works for me) and/or b) provide some insight where the user can make his or her own discovery (here is a link to one discussion on the topic). Rather than try to change who I am, I will take the advice to choose more carefully the threads where I offer my input. Again, I apologize if I have offended anyone’s sensibilities.
Greg, you have no need to apologize. Your posts on this forum are among the most helpful and useful. Please don’t change a thing!
True.
I stress this!
Bill - not the right thread for this, but would you mind to give us some short insights from your trip to Stuttgart?
nachteule, as always I enjoyed getting together with the DEVONtechnologies group, and another visit to the beautiful old area of Bietigheim-Bissingen (and some good food). Eric and his wife, Heike, were great hosts.
The community of DEVONthink users has continued to grow remarkably well even in these tough economic times.
I can’t discuss development plans, except to say that two new developers have been added, and that 2011 should be a good year for continued product development.
One new feature that has alread been mentioned in the forum will be the addition of a Sync feature, and that will be exciting. Rob Rix is working on that. He and his wife, Kelly, live in London, Ontario, Canada.