What's the problem?

matt_4013

Hiya people.

I've been lurking and doing some short posts here and there on these forums for quite a while now, and there is one thing that has come to my attention. Everytime somebody posts something that has already been brought up, be it twice before, or a thousand times before, there's usually a few people that jump on their back about not searching before they post.

Now, don't get me wrong, I agree that they really should do the work themselves, but why bother getting annoyed about it, and posting a message that says something along the lines of:

"Well, if you'd SEARCHED the forums, as anyone with half the brain of a gnat would think to DO, then you MIGHT find the answer you're looking for!".

Those messages REALLY annoy me. Honestly, if you don't like a post, why not just ignore it? It doesn't hurt you, and if people like me who actually answer these posts (usually with links to the manual, or other tutorials) aren't around, then they wont get answered anyway, and they'll have to do it themselves!

I know I'm not going to change the way you people think, and do marvellous things for the forum community in general by bringing this up, it's simply a curiosity thing. Why bother getting worked up?

Kind Regards,
Matt

Elizabeth

Matt, I think it's just a little frustrating when people want an answer to something that is already there... that's all. A lot of the coders on here are more than happy to help, but they are much more willing to help when they know the person on the other end has tried every other outlet before posting their question. Some people are just too lazy to do a little research before posting, and they would much prefer someone to write out their code for them and hand it to them on a silver platter. And you have to admit, a LOT of the questions are either spelled out in the manual, or common questions that have been answered over and over again... it just gets old.

I, myself, however am perfect and I never do anything wrong, or annoy other people at all.

😃 just a little joke there...

-Elizabeth

keith73

the problem, Matt, isn't that they dont' search for the answer, but that many of those people don't bother to try to figure things out. Just last week, the same question about sessions was posted about 5 times in the course of 3 days or so. Each time, the threads were still visible in the list of active threads on the first page.

I usually will tell people that if they search they'll find their answer, but I'll still answer their question or post a link to another thread that answers their question.

Some people just expect others to do things for them. If you're going to be a good php coder, you have to be able to figure things out for yourself. Some newbies just want you to fix the code for them, but it ends there, they don't care to understand where they went wrong. That annoys me. It takes only 1-5 minutes to do a search and find your answer. Anything over 5 minutes and yeah, the answer probably isn't there. If they can't take the time to do a simple search, how are they going to be a good coder?

just my $1.25

keith

matt_4013

I just don't understand why people come back with a terse reply! I can't see that it's worth the effort, and also a lot of the time people don't know what they should be searching for. Ah well, guess they people I was really referring to don't want to answer anyway, so I'll leave it be.

Thanks guys.

keith73

Originally posted by matt_4013
I just don't understand why people come back with a terse reply! I can't see that it's worth the effort, and also a lot of the time people don't know what they should be searching for. Ah well, guess they people I was really referring to don't want to answer anyway, so I'll leave it be.

Thanks guys.

I try not to respond with 'terse replies' but just make them aware of the usefullness of searching.

Every message board or newsgroup has a set of guidelines that all newbies should read. That's just proper netiquette. Read the forum for a few days, get an idea of how things work, read the FAQ, the charter, etc. THEN post a question if you can't find your answer.

Many times when a new poster shows up with a thread titled "help me now PLEASE!" it's because they got stuck on something. Usually it's simple, they just don't see it. But often there's no code posted, just a vague description of the problem. The thing is, if they had searched before posting, they would have found their answer quicker than waiting for someone to reply.

keith

epimeth

Originally posted by keith73
just my $1.25

wow... has inflation really pushed the penny up that much???

xblue

btw, I found this one of the friendliest and most patient forums I've ever been to.

I always try to ignore posts that would get me annoyed (but do not always succeed).
In general I don't feel there is anything wrong with telling them something about the forum they might not have known (some things as crossposting or the useful php tags are just not that obvious) along with the answer.

epimeth

I think part of the problem is that some people come here with absolutely no experience and then say "hey, I need to make a really complicated site with mulltiple user levels, a shopping cart, and site administration where I can edit content. Can any of you really cool dudes send me the code?"...

So we're all thinking to ourselves "bastard wants us to do his homework for him! screw him! and while we're at it, screw all those annoying people who want us to write code for them!"

so I think we kinda let it out on people we shouldn't...

Its a good think we can vent off our fustration on eachother in the echo lounge. 🙂

keith73

Originally posted by epimeth
wow... has inflation really pushed the penny up that much???

no, I just charge more for my 2 cents than I used to. I need the dough.

keith

BuzzLY

Originally posted by epimeth
Its a good think we can vent off our fustration on eachother in the echo lounge. 🙂

Oh, shut up! Like you know anything, anyway!

Hehe :p

Seriously, though, Matt, I'm not sure who or what you are referring to, but I imagine it's a single post you are talking about. In general, this board is very mild-tempered, and most people are extremely patient with others.

I have sort of taken it upon myself to be a Netiquette cop around here -- not sure how it happened, but people don't seem to mind, and I usually try to be polite about it. That's how the guidelines came to be. If I see a post that's been answered already, I'll let that person know, and either give them the answer anyway, or give them a link to the relevant thread.

Try visiting some other boards, matt, and I think you'll see that there are far fewer flames around here than most places.

Except my board, of course 😉

hkucsis

but I imagine it's a single post you are talking about.

Not really...at least Qs about Session, Upload..... appear several times everyday.

And what is more annoying is post like

....please write a script to......

Seems that it is an assignment for us.

Here is a nice sample assignment worksheet.

dar-k

I just replied to that one.
Am I too cheap?

dar-k

BTW, is there any way to teach these newcomers to actually come up with more descriptive subjects than 'help plz', or 'simple/newbie/weird/stinky problem', or the intellectually challenging 'HELP'.

hkucsis

Hi dar-k,

I like your reply. Very nice 🙂

xblue

John used to try it in his signature (some pseudo code for pick a desciptive title or I won't help) - the downside: if he actually hadn't replied to them, those who write "plz help" probably wouldn't have seen his message. :rolleyes:

dar-k

Maybe add a little text at the top of the thread list?

dalecosp

Add this to the board:

<?
if (!$_COOKIE['warned']) {
  setcookie("warned", time()+31536000);
  echo "<script language=javascript type=text/javascript>\n";
  echo "<!--"."\n alert(\"Read the Newbie guidelines or" 
  echo "wear flame-retardant underwear!!!\")";  //perhaps include link(?)
  echo "--->"."\n </script>";
}
?>

Seriously, Matt; somebody likely needs thick skin. This forum is extremely friendly by comparison. Granted, that may not be an excuse for bad behavior, but run Linux, and subscribe to a mailing list. Or OpenBSD. Or go back to Usenet. You haven't been flamed until...oh, well, never mind. 🙂

Could be some of us are too used to the above type forums...generally speaking, if a poster will demonstrate the fact that they're trying to do something, most folks here give them quite a bit of help....

matt_4013

dalecosp, it wasn't a reference to somebody flaming me, (I don't ask questions, I answer them), there were just a few posts by different people in quick succession that just didn't seem fair on the people asking the questions.

And yes, I do run linux, and I do subscribe to a number of mailing lists, and I have been flamed to a much greater extent than I've seen on this board, and that's half the reason I chose to broach the subject here 😉

It's all good, I was really just curious as to why people do reply like that. Looks like the common consensus is frustration. I know there are a lot of lazy/not-as-intelligent (😉) people out there, guess I just prefer to ignore or tolerate them!

Weedpacket

Originally posted by matt_4013
I know there are a lot of lazy/not-as-intelligent (😉) people out there, guess I just prefer to ignore or tolerate them!

But then how are they going to learn? Where's the value to them (or to anyone else) in that?

BuzzLY

Originally posted by Weedpacket
But then how are they going to learn? Where's the value to them (or to anyone else) in that?

Great link 🙂. That page just about says it all.