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pwasser wrote: It is worth noting that the increase in non-questions (those which are completely outside the guidelines) is almost equally matched by an increase in non-answers quite often by reputation hounds. Hi Peter,
Our observations seem congruent: that could mean we're both intelligent, and perceptive, or, both equally biased, deluded, brain-washed, or insane
The spate of non-answers, off-topic self-aggrandizing mini-sermons, throw-some-links-against-the-wall-and-see-if-anything-sticks, reminds me of Leibniz' concept of psittacism which just happened to be my OED e-mail newsletter word-of-the-day for today:
Leibniz: "Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain" (1765) ii. 145). "The mechanical repetition of previously received ideas or images, without true reasoning or feeling; repetition of words or phrases parrot-fashion; an instance of this."
Diagnosis is easy, yes ?
“The best hope is that one of these days the Ground will get disgusted enough just to walk away ~ leaving people with nothing more to stand ON than what they have so bloody well stood FOR up to now.” Kenneth Patchen, Poet
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BillWoodruff wrote: psittacism
I like it.
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am.
JimmyRopes
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Quote: Responses like this literally make me want to vomit: [^]. Perhaps it has been removed but I read everything on that link and don't see anything worthy of losing my lunch. Can you explain?
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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The abusive answer looks to have been removed. A certain poster basically insulted and belittled a new site member and suggested that they should rip up whatever qualifications they had. There was no charity in the answer and it was completely unnecessary.
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I remember there being at least one other perfectly valid answer, which also appears to have been deleted.
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Click on the question to see the answers. Bill's link takes you to the removed question which hides the other answers.
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Right you are. That doesn't seem like very intuitive behavior. *Off to bugs/suggs*
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Totally agree.
Just take a look at this, for example: How can I combine two .csv files using c#?[^]
Why on earth was that question downvoted? It was perfectly legitimate.
QA definitely needs to be more beginner friendly.
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I don't really like that particular question, regardless of the questioner being a beginner. It sounds as if they are not a programmer; they are just a person trying to use programming to get a particular task done. And they've not shown that they've done any work toward attempting to create a programmatic solution (e.g., by saying they can't figure out how to read in the contents of a file). So, they're basically asking for work to be done for them for free.
And that "rush" they describe... shouldn't that be reserved for solutions they come up with? That is, the rush that comes from accomplishment. If not, it seems like the rush they're getting is one of gaining productivity... by having others do work for them.
I didn't downvote them (they explained the problem very well), but I'd certainly have asked them to show me what they had so far before spoon feeding them the answer, and I can understand why somebody else might downvote them.
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That may be a personal view. We are all inclined to read questions and think maybe the poster is a dickhead. However if the question substantially meets the forum guidelines that is irrelevant.
Yes asking for more information is sometimes the way but in the case of this question what more is required?
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
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For this question, I'd have asked what they tried (with code samples) and what they're stuck on. Not because I'd need that to answer the question, but because I'd need that to be sure they actually tried.
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AspDotNetDev wrote: It sounds as if they are not a programmer; they are just a person trying to use programming to get a particular task done
Why is this a problem? Am I not allowed to ask questions if I'm not having a degree in computer science? We need less elitism, not more.
AspDotNetDev wrote: And they've not shown that they've done any work toward attempting to create a programmatic solution
If I know that I'm lacking the knowledge, I'm explaining the situation and my needs first to save time. Showing a non functional solution that's probably off won't help a bit.
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Jörgen Andersson wrote: Why is this a problem? Am I not allowed to ask questions if I'm not having a degree in computer science?
If they are not a programmer, they are trying to get non-programming tasks done programmatically. This implies that they aren't trying to learn the craft, but are instead trying to get work done for them for free.
Jörgen Andersson wrote: If I know that I'm lacking the knowledge, I'm explaining the situation and my needs first to save time. Showing a non functional solution that's probably off won't help a bit.
The point isn't for it to help in producing an answer (though, often it does). In this case, it would be to show that the OP actually tried before asking for help.
The basic issue I take with that particular question is that the OP was asking for a solution, not an answer to a particular problem. They didn't say, "I don't know how to open a file" or "I don't know how to append two strings". They presented a spec and expected a solution that fit that spec. Like I said, that's work for free.
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A simple yes would have sufficed.
AspDotNetDev wrote: The basic issue I take with that particular question is that the OP was asking for a solution, not an answer to a particular problem. They didn't say, "I don't know how to open a file" or "I don't know how to append two strings". They presented a spec and expected a solution that fit that spec. Like I said, that's work for free.
Sometimes presenting a spec is the simplest way to explain your problem and what solution you need. You can still give an answer that gives them the info they need to know to solve it themselves.
You also Always have the third option, to move on.
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AspDotNetDev wrote: I don't really like that particular question, regardless of the questioner being a beginner. It sounds as if they are not a programmer; they are just a person trying to use programming to get a particular task done.
Sounds like DD! so what is your point?
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am.
JimmyRopes
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Any more than 3? Or is that the last of the subscriber base?
(See the post below if you wonder where I got 3 from.....)
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Anorexics Of Louisiana, there's got to be more than 3?
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LA is among the most obese states in the nation. No anorexics there.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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Hey, I am proud AOL user. I use my AOL email for all unwanted registrations like Adobe. It just works.
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A friend asked me if I could sort out his laptop last week. After a couple of hours with it I gave it back saying thta I had cured the startup problem, removed a virus, and decrapified it, removing stuff that noone ever uses, such as AOL etc.
"AOL is my ISP" sasys he.
"Doh!" say I
=========================================================
I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================
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Is it just me, or do people who use AOL tend to know less about using their browsers and computers in general? I know several long-term AOL members. One is a lady in her 50s. She's a smart gal and business owner. But a few weeks ago I had to explain how to copy and paste to her. And she's been using computers for years. My older brother (AOL user) complained a few years ago about how his Win XP machine was slowing down. I asked him how often he defragged. His reply: "Defrag? What's that?" I know another AOL user who's had the same machine for years. She emailed me one day wondering how to find out what version of Windows she had. Maybe it's just coincidence but it seems odd that so many AOL users lack a lot of the general knowledge most other "non-IT" users have. I'm not being snarky, just curious if anyone else has noticed this.
XAlan Burkhart
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If they had any clue, they wouldn't be using AOL anymore, would they?
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Good point. I had AOL for a few days many years ago. They kept calling me trying to sell me low-end cameras and other junk merchandise. I dropped them after about a week and a half. Been with Yahoo ever since. They're not perfect, but at least they're not AOL.
XAlan Burkhart
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I actually found out from a different post yesterday that AOL is still around. Who knew?
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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RyanDev wrote: I actually found out from a different post yesterday that AOL is still around. Who knew?
That was actually what prompted me to post this. That, and I'm sitting at home with nothing to do until Monday (and loving it). It's noon and I'm still drinking my morning coffee. Life is good.
XAlan Burkhart
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