cabin fever?

[unclejed613]

it seems lately a lot of newbies come here, some with genuine questions, some with questions that likely could have been answered quicker using a good search engine. some questions are "should i stick a fork into the wall outlet to see what happens?" type questions. i don't know, but it seems like the noobs get trampled and bitten without getting their questions answered, and a lot of these threads go on for days, but the noob OP has left the building. to be honest some of the questions aren't very well thought out, and are really vague. some of the vagueness may be from a language barrier, but often it's just that they don't have a clue what kind of information is relevant to their question. sometimes i get frustrated with the lack of relevant info, because it's hard to answer a question where the person asking doesn't know how to ask. i guess i can get as cranky as anybody else on here, likely to do with not getting enough sleep. but it seems the overall "crankiness" on ETO has gone up a couple of notches over the last few months. it probably began because of a lot of trolling that was going on, but the trolls seem to have gone after other game, and it seems we spend a lot of time trolling each other, and treating noobs as trolls.

as the weather starts getting warmer, spend some time "recharging your batteries", and maybe the noobs will feel welcome again...

 

[Pommie]

As it's currently 36C (97F) outside, I'm looking forward to some cooler months. I have noticed what you mean though.

Mike.

 

[tronitech]

I agree with you completely.

It's as if you have to have some electronics knowledge before you can join the "clique" which doesn't make any sense if you want to grow the site.

 

[JimB]

OK, can you give a few examples where noobs were trampled and bitten?

Can you give any examples where good help was given?

JimB

 

[dknguyen]

I've started noticing this happening more often too. But less so that a newbie immediately gets bitten, but that someone makes a unhelpful anecdote early on that sends things increasingly further astray.

 

[dknguyen]

OK, can you give a few examples where noobs were trampled and bitten?

Can you give any examples where good help was given?

JimB

This is one:
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/current-amplification.155996/#post-1345229

The sarcasm outweighs the useful responses in the thread and could easily lead a newbie to believe that there is a way to do it if they weren't fully able to comprehend the helpful posts. The OP obviously was not asking how to make a perpetual motion machine as much as they did not understand the implications of their question due to lack of understanding about the relationship between voltage, current , and power.

Then of course, there was this one:
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/utility-power-transformer-monitoring.156053/

 

[MichaelaJoy]

dknguyen: It looks like mods cleaned up one of the thread you mentioned.

You see a lot of that stuff on 'nix forums, where a novice asks a simple question and gets insulted and told "RTFM",
or even banned. But that's done with arrogance, and with that 'clique' mentality in mind.

TBH, I really haven't seen that here. But don't mention "over unity" or perpetual motion, or you'll get teased.

 

[JimB]

It looks like mods cleaned up one of the thread you mentioned.

Yes, something had to be done about the "Power Transformer" thread, it was bad.

The "current amplification" thread went a bit astray when the OP seemed to abandon the thread, he did not return to ETO (as far as I can tell) for five days, and even then did not acknowledge what useful information there was in the thread.

Often I have seen replies to new people which sometimes involve a bit of thinking on the part of someone replying, the guy asking the question never returns to acknowledge the work which has been done for him.

JimB

 

[MichaelaJoy]

Yes, something had to be done about the "Power Transformer" thread, it was bad.

The "current amplification" thread went a bit astray when the OP seemed to abandon the thread, he did not return to ETO (as far as I can tell) for five days, and even then did not acknowledge what useful information there was in the thread.

Often I have seen replies to new people which sometimes involve a bit of thinking on the part of someone replying, the guy asking the question never returns to acknowledge the work which has been done for him.

JimB

You're right. When a novice asks a question, Sometimes that question is so complex
that an experienced engineer is needed to solve it. That kind of service is worth a lot of money,
and it should be respected and acknowledged.

On the other hand, if the problem is a fairly simple problem to figure out
(simple is relative; What's easy for you might be impossible for me)
You as the novice poster should do some basic homework and at least try to understand the problem well enough
so that you can state the question(s) in the least confusing manner possible.

Garbage in...Garbage out.

And don't forget to say thank you for the help being given to you.

Whatever happened to being courteous and respectful to one another? When did that go out of fashion?

And don't make an idiot out of someone because they're not on your technical level.
They may very well end up being your boss some day. Or being in a position to hire you as a consultant.

I agree with you completely.

It's as if you have to have some electronics knowledge before you can join the "clique" which doesn't make any sense if you want to grow the site.

It's more than that. How do I explain biasing to someone who doesn't understand how a transistor works?
So there -is- a certain prerequisite knowledge that's needed for an answer to make sense to you.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I got nixed in a Linux forum. By nixed, means my question was deamed to be invalid and not possible, so i was told not to post about it again.

Linux 12.04 LTS will eventually become unstable and crash if the OS is run from a CD. The amount of RAM determines how long it takes to crash. It might take a week.

I now know the cause, but not the elegant solution. The file .xsession-errors (spelling?) grows until the small file system on a plugged in flash drive fills to capacity. I don't know the cause either. I believe it's videos that cause it.

If I periodically rm .xsession.errors e.g. rm -f ~/.xsession-errors hourly or manually, it works. I was able to set up a job useing gnome-schedule. cron still baffles me.