Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion
Rockbox "Experts" are jerks
Davide-NYC:
I've been on this forum for quite a while and find that the mods and admins have a level of patience usually reserved for saints.
RowaN:
guys where can i find teh GaMeBoy rhomz and WHY CANT YOU FIX IT TO PLAY FULL SPeed? what about DS ROMS??
i kid of course
sometimes n00bs need a dose of tough love. go rockbox!
Sherv - nice idea
TexasRockbox:
I'll speak from a noob side. Getting an ipod and straight to installing rockbox as soon as it could be determined that the ipod was electrically functional was a pretty fast decision -- about a day. I had already read though the manual (haven't memorized it yet) so had some idea what to expect. Once it all installed and worked from the start, it became absolutely thrilling knowing that I haven't purchased a $330USD slab of metal and plastic.
Instead, I have a $330 high capacity ogg vorbis player! At this point, the excitement becomes about overwheling as one starts to realize what can be possible. It is probably at this point the noob makes a posting with either something stupid, gushing, or slightly relevent.
I would give a well-meaning noob, one free pass before "search", RTFM, etc.. Yes Rockbox is a project and the forum is intended to help the project along. But face it, we've all been noobs at something at one point -- we've ALL been there. I think the one free pass is worth the *not* chasing off of someone who may really be talented.
Now this noob (me) is working on a theme, leaning how it works, and may end up posting several new themes. It's been awhile since I've coded "C" but may look into that as well.
vitess:
Many developers/experts in the F/OSS community have "the attitude" but it's often as a response to users demonstrating an "attitude" of their own. Take this final post from a user in the thread I read just before this one:
--- Quote ---alright well that sucks.. if somehow that would be fixed so i could use the itrip with my sansa on rockbox i would gladly get rockbox but i love driving and listening to my mp3 player so i suppose i won't get rockbox
--- End quote ---
That's far from the worst example but it is typical of the "me me me" "I want I want I want" perspective. That said, as a user I was similar before I started developing F/OSS myself and gained an appreciation for the time and effort that goes into it. I don't recall being a jerk from memory - I only know it because I recently happened upon a 10-year-old IRC log in which I was making demands of a developer of a Free program in his support channel. I cringed when I read it.
What developers need to remember is that users often don't realise they're being jerks, and responding with condescension or berating them just serves to increase their jerkiness.
Febs:
--- Quote from: vitess on July 15, 2007, 03:50:44 AM ---That's far from the worst example but it is typical of the "me me me" "I want I want I want" perspective.
--- End quote ---
Here is an example of a message that I received just two days ago. This user sent me a personal message asking for help (which is specifically prohibited by the posting guidelines), but did not say what he needed help with. I responded by (1) pointing out that it is inappropriate to send personal messages asking for help, and (2) suggesting that he post a message in the forums with a detailed description of the trouble he was having.
Instead of starting his own thread, he hijacked another thread in a clearly inappropriate forum and posted a message that said, "help please." That's it. No explanation of the problem, no suggestion of what help he needed, just "help please."
Seven minutes later, he posted another message saying, "help i bin hear for a minute waiting can you please help me whats the point of having a forum if nobody aint helping."
I deleted those two posts, and sent him another private message suggesting that he read the manual, and then start a thread with whatever specific question he may have. He replied immediately (within seconds, and obviously without making any effort to find the manual on his own), "Where's the manual." I replied, "under the link that says 'Manual'."
Here is his response:
"dead u b*** a** n*** u acting like a f****ing b***h write now like u cant f**ing help me u kno what s**k my d**k p**y im from the hood i show love but since u aint shwing love s**kl my d**k"
Needless to say, this person no longer has an account on these forums.
--- Quote ---What developers need to remember is that users often don't realise they're being jerks, and responding with condescension or berating them just serves to increase their jerkiness.
--- End quote ---
There is a difference between people who are honestly confused and people who are jerks. I think that we should be patient with the people who are honestly confused. For example, if someone has read the manual and truly doesn't understand a point, then we should help that person or improve the manual. (The example comes to mind of the people who don't understand what the "root" of a drive is, and who stumble over that portion of the installation instructions.) Those people who make an honest effort to help themselves and to follow our posting guidelines but who simply don't understand something deserve our respect, and we should try to help them without being demeaning or condescending. Granted, it is difficult at times to answer the same basic question dozens of times, but we need to remember that the question is new to that user.
That said, I have little patience for the people who come here and without reading our guidelines or our manual, start threads with non-descriptive titles using incomprehensible grammar and demand that we spoon feed them information that is readily available in the manual.
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