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So many support requests could be solved if...

RTFM! We wrote that help file for a reason (especially thanks to CyberSlug, ScriptKitty, and Jdeb). Would it be redundent to include an RTFM entry in the help file? :D

David Nuttall
Nuttall Computer Consulting

An Aquarius born during the Age of Aquarius

AutoIt allows me to re-invent the wheel so much faster.

I'm off to write a wizard, a wonderful wizard of odd...

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Yea... and change the Link in the Editors for F1 to:

http://www.hiddensoft.com/forum/index.php?showforum=2

(Right away the correct SUPPORT Forum..!!!!)

SciTE4AutoIt3 Full installer Download page   - Beta files       Read before posting     How to post scriptsource   Forum etiquette  Forum Rules 
 
Live for the present,
Dream of the future,
Learn from the past.
  :)

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So many support requests could be solved if...

RTFM!  We wrote that help file for a reason (especially thanks to CyberSlug, ScriptKitty, and Jdeb).  Would it be redundent to include an RTFM entry in the help file?  :huh2:

Pah. Manuals are a last resort :D
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  • When all else fails, read the manual.
  • A real man does not ask for directions nor read the manual. He has to try doing things on his own first, before asking his friends for help and only as a last resort, read the documentation that came with the product. :D

David Nuttall
Nuttall Computer Consulting

An Aquarius born during the Age of Aquarius

AutoIt allows me to re-invent the wheel so much faster.

I'm off to write a wizard, a wonderful wizard of odd...

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Another thing that comes to my mind. Do you want your answer now or later? I personally want my answers now, which means I most definitely won't run off to a forum first where it may take hours or days to get an answer if you get one at all. I find the posts that read "Help me now!" or "Help me quickly!" amusing, especially when they are in the help file. The internet may have information available instantly, but a forum that is managed by humans isn't going to be quite as instant as you would like.

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I do try to RTFM before asking questions, and hope to always ask informed questions, saying what I've already tried or looked at... and I've found myself really not feeling so dumb due to the plethora of "d00dz how do I write a script? need help now!" questions.

hmmm, can't get to google right now, but aern't there some good "how to ask questions on the internet" FAQ's that could be required reading for forum membership?

"I'm not even supposed to be here today!" -Dante (Hicks)

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I do try to RTFM before asking questions, and hope to always ask informed questions, saying what I've already tried or looked at...  and I've found myself really not feeling so dumb due to the plethora of "d00dz how do I write a script?  need help now!" questions.

hmmm, can't get to google right now, but aern't there some good "how to ask questions on the internet" FAQ's that could be required reading for forum membership?

If they post something like that: ban them and mail 'em some "how to ask questions on the internet" FAQ's
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[*]A real man does not ask for directions nor read the manual.  He has to try doing things on his own first, before asking his friends for help and only as a last resort, read the documentation that came with the product. :D

Now if we could just get women to understand this, life would be so much easier

:huh2:

We have enough youth. How about a fountain of SMART?

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What! I thought the manual was only for us to copy and paste into the help forums. :D

99% of my posts are only copied from the manual., now I think we should have numbered them so we could just say "The answer is on page#" & $nX

AutoIt3, the MACGYVER Pocket Knife for computers.

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People ask first because it is effective.

How many times have you seen poorly asked questions result in 3 or more elaborate, completely coded responses? Many times. Only a few of the primary responders here or on Yahoo, draw out the questioner and insure that they put some mental stretching effort into it themselves. On several occasions we've seen various sharp scriptors build all or nearly all the meat and potatoes of an application for seeminly inept repeat questioners. Of course it was built by a committee that never really met, but the questioner got what they wanted, and to some degree so did the responders.

I used to be involved in Community Theatre, I loved it and it seemed to love me for more that 12 years. I was given the opportunity to hold every function, the only ones I didn't try; were organization President, wardrobe, and props. Among the things I learned 2 standout, first, when you're doing a valuable thing for free, folks will let you do as much of it as you will. The second thing is, if you are enjoying doing something or the cudos that go with it; it doesn't matter if you find yourself doing it at 3AM and all the others have gone home.

Now doing something valuable for free is a good thing if you are having a good time and or you like how it makes you feel about yourself. This sort of thing contributes to "good" healthy communities, a little sweat equity from the helped makes it even better.

Gene

PS. I didn't plan to write an epistle, it just plopped out.

PPS. RE: first statement (Folks can look it up if no one responds, or they can go away in a huff. A few of them seem to think quick service is their right. Most seem appreciative.)

Edited by Gene

[font="Verdana"]Thanks for the response.Gene[/font]Yes, I know the punctuation is not right...

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Would it be redundent to include an RTFM entry in the help file?  :lol:

So if we add it to the help file, who's going to see it :)

Anyway, how about Jon posts the following link on the forum:

:Dd00d, for samples of uber-1337 code RTFM :huh2:

Use Mozilla | Take a look at My Disorganized AutoIt stuff | Very very old: AutoBuilder 11 Jan 2005 prototype I need to update my sig!
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So if we add it to the help file, who's going to see it  :)

Anyway, how about Jon posts the following link on the forum:

:Dd00d, for samples of uber-1337 code RTFM :huh2:

Or translated loosely in elite hacker language:

duDE, F0R 5@MPLe5 opH ubER l3E+ c0DE rtFM

Or something to that nature :lol:

We have enough youth. How about a fountain of SMART?

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In response to you Gene:

The only thing that annoys me more than people asking questions when if they'd take 5 mintues and look at the help file they would get an answer is people who write the whole script for that person. It's like fighting fire with gasoline. The person asked a question, wanted an answer and gets a working script out of it. Now, will they look at the help file and try to learn next time, or will they just come back, ask another question and hope somebody else writes them a script?

In my experience, the person who doesn't use the static resource the first time they have an issue also isn't very likely to take the free script and try to figure out how it works. So basically the net total of gained knowledge is simply that there is somebody on the forum who might write them another script.

Sharing concepts and ideas and stuff of that nature is great. Asking basic support questions that are covered in a file installed with every AutoIt installation gets rather old pretty quickly. I'm growing particularly tired of FAQ item #7 (The quote thing).

Then there is the fact that there is this apparently invisible search button. Some people use it, but they are very few, and a lot of those apparently suck at using search because they can't seem to ever find what they are supposedly searching for.

So now, we have a static help file installed locally AND an archive of messages from the last 5 months which more than likely answer those basic support requests.

Programmers are lazy by nature. However, there is a huge difference between general laziness and programmer laziness. Programmer laziness will lead to hours upon hours of research and work coding, testing, debugging and rewriting a program to do something new, do something better or do something faster. In short, we'll spend more time making something to do something quicker than it would probably take to do it by hand in the first place. However, not looking at a help file just falls into the category of general laziness as far as I'm concerned. Nothing "productive" comes from that sort of laziness.

And let's not even start on the people who post a support request and can't even manage to get it in the correct forum.

Sadly, it's a moot (I didn't type faster than I can read this time, Gene) point. I've been around forums long enough to know that people can and will do the most illogical thing you can conceive of the vast majority of the time. In this case, it's skipping past the quick-peruse-at-your-own-leisure static reference such as the help file and forum archive and jump straight to the might-wait-for-days support request.

Well that was a rather long harangue. Sadly, I'm fully aware that it's pretty much pointless because so long as breathing is an automatic action of the human body, this pattern of behavior will continue. I mean, why should this little corner of the internet be any different than the rest?

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The only thing that annoys me more than people asking questions when if they'd take 5 mintues and look at the help file they would get an answer is people who write the whole script for that person.  It's like fighting fire with gasoline.

I have to admit I've done this on occassion, but I try to encourage the poster to look at the help file. While I don't want to scare off newbies, you do have a valid point.

Then there is the fact that there is this apparently invisible search button.  Some people use it, but they are very few, and a lot of those apparently suck at using search because they can't seem to ever find what they are supposedly searching for.

For what it's worth, 90% of the time I have to try at least three different search queries to find a thread I started a week or two ago! :D (I do make sure to set the search time frame for all posts, but I very frequently end up with zero hits!) Anyone else have a hard time finding things with Search?
Use Mozilla | Take a look at My Disorganized AutoIt stuff | Very very old: AutoBuilder 11 Jan 2005 prototype I need to update my sig!
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Anyone else have a hard time finding things with Search?

Yeah, I was trying to find that thread that discussed the bugs in the installer / file association and the fix for XP. Had to look for every post from "Valik" in the end :D
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I've used the search half a dozen times or something and haven't had a problem with it (Except getting several hits and forgetting the actual title of the topic I'm searching for).

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