Comments by abbabbabba (Top 9 by date)

I did not leave out any important information - that was the information I had to share at that point. And when the information was changed, I could easily manage to fix it on my own. And I posted the solution here. Someone, in the future, might get this error message (which now is proven to be completely wrong) and just might be helped by this thread. But I sense you would dismiss the entire thread based on your thoughts on how the question was authored.

Not trying to spin anything. And I totally disagree. A huge responsibility relies on the replying parties. As always - on any forum. I constantly see people getting answers like; "Why would anyone want to do THAT? Do like this instead..." and "No, that cannot be done.".
These types of answers are not helping. When trying to help a person you should always at least try to understand that there is a reason for the question author to do exactly like he/she does, so never assume that the person is stupid for chosing to do it this way and simply just does not know "how it should be done". That person may now exactly what he/she is doing when trying to accomplish one thing, but there is one detail missing to make it fully work. The question is to help him/her with this missing detail. Do not expect that person to explain exactly why everything is done the way it is done - just answer the question, or ignore it.
And never tell anyone "it cannot be done" unless you have hard evidence of that. Just because you don't think it can't be done, it does not mean it's true. I have, as mentioned, seen people get this answer to questions where I know it can be done, and I know how to do it. Of course I have corrected the answers those times.

What I am saying is that the replies we post should be authored in a way that do not make anyone discouraged, sad or upset. And if you feel like posting something like "RTFM" or a vague "check everything and see if you find anything", then don't. Just don't.

I have programmed since the absolute beginning of the 80's and 2000-2010 I was a frequent helping hand on some forums, and I have seen such bad behavior as well as extraordinary great behavior from helpful people who actually want to help others. The lame answer I got here is not what you should expect from helpful people. And you know it.

It was a general question saying; "Do you have any clue on what is going on when copying files FROM a USB stick and an error message pops up saying that the USB stick is write protected." Since it only happened on one single machine I suspected bad USB drivers or other USB specific issues. Issues that people actually might know something about. But instead of a constructive reply, like "you should check your code - what are you doing with the files when or after copying them?", I got a really vague reply suggesting that I should check the problem machine for clues. :-D
If I initially had thought there was a tiny chance that it would be a code problem, I would just have checked it, without asking anything here. But I felt pretty sure it was some kind of USB related issue - and with that error message, I actually believe you should have made the same assumption.

When I begun to see that it must be a code thing, I wrote so in the comments above when someone suggested that "It's not going to be a code thing.".

The garage metaphor is fun, but does not describe my question at all, since I gave you the error message and told you what's going on when it is thrown - during file copying. If the metaphor would have been relevant, my question should have been "I have created an application which isn't working, what's wrong with it?" but it wasn't what I wrote, was it?
But thanks for commenting and elevating the awareness of the need of being clear when having to do with people thinking within a box, within the box.

Thanks. Sorry to have offended you. I just think your initial reply was like telling a person who lost his keys to go look after them all over the house. He just might have asked you in hope that you had seen the keys somewhere... I was hoping some one would recognize the issue with a faulty error message saying that write protection is a problem, when copying FROM an USB stick. I've a complete mirror personality, so I just reflect people's behavior. But first I need to interpret their behavior of course, and in this case I might have misinterpreted you. You're probably a nice person after all. :-) I'll post the cause of the problem below.