I don't post here often, but read a lot. One thing that turned me off=20
was when I asked about how to write a subroutine in ASM, and received a=20
reply "just write it". If I knew how to write it, I wouldn't have needed=20
to ask. That was about the most useless answer I've ever gotten to any=20
question.

After that, I looked elsewhere for my answers and usually found them=20
elsewhere - Google is great for that. So, I never was put in the=20
position of having to ask on the list for any more "help". Some list=20
members seem to think new guys should know as much as they know.

Joe M.

On 12/9/2014 4:59 PM, John J. McDonough wrote:
> I think Neil got it here.
>
> The whole mailing list concept is kind of old at stodgy, a little like
> IRC. Both are wonderful tools and in many ways, far better than the
> flashier things that have replaced them.
>
> But as time moves on, the older members either learn more and so have
> less to ask, or move on to more administrative tasks.  Meanwhile, the
> newer folks are younger, don't relate to the old standards, and instead
> go looking for answers on Facebook, Twitter, whatever.  Even web based
> forums are probably a little more respectable to the younger crowd.  And
> Microchip's forums are pretty decent.
>
> --McD
>
> On Tue, 2014-12-09 at 13:17 -0500, Neil wrote:
>> I find it hard to believe that the decline of a list could be due to one
>> person, just a few people.  Personally, my participation dropped off
>> because as I got to know PICs more and more, developed my business more
>> and more, and hence became more administrative.  Still using PICs, and
>> even more so now, but some of the development has been pushed off to
>> others.  As I learned more, I obviously asked less questions.  There are
>> always people coming and going on lists, and I feel that the ones
>> expected to come in haven't been doing so, as it seems from my robotics
>> activities and other clubs that the Arduino has become the noob platform
>> of choice.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 12/9/2014 8:27 AM, RussellMc wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>> Well, I never saw the message Russell is quoting here
>>>>> Me neither
>>>>
>>>> http://meta.electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/3997/how-can-we-im=
prove-the-manner-in-which-poor-questions-are-dealt-with
>>>>
>>>> The comment has probably been removed.
>>>>
>>>> It's still there.
>>> It's a comment on Nick's question starting "One week is too long ..."
>>>
>>> FWIW, it's a matter of fact and record that most people commenting
>>> 'against' my suggestions re how to treat beginners have no clue and no
>>> experience of what process the new poster experiences, how it appears t=
o
>>> them and the difficulty they have overcoming a "closed" question.
>>>
>>> I have worked offlist with several new posters on that 'list' to help t=
hem
>>> overcome the bad reactions to their first questions and so have a good =
idea
>>> of how it can appear 'from the other side'.
>>> In many cases the OP does not use English as their first language.
>>> A major problem, invisible to those who have it, is that some
>>>
>>> people (who may be highly "intelligent" and capable in their sphere of
>>> expertise) *seem to have *an extremely low ability to understand anythi=
ng
>>> not written in a manner which they are highly familiar with. A question=
 can
>>> make good sense, be logical, be a good question in its own right and be
>>> worded in unusual but entirely acceptable English, but meet with opprob=
rium
>>> and incomprehension by the linguistically strait-jacketed ones. As many=
 of
>>> these also have question closing power the result is predictable. If I =
was
>>> not giving such people the strong benefit of the doubt I'd suspect that
>>> more than a few are not quite as incapable as they pretend to be but ha=
ve
>>> "racist leanings".
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>           Russell
>>
>
>
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