I agree. A newbie (and I hate the term) list only further exacerbates the problem with searching because that's just another place that one has to (a) know about and (b) remember to look in. Plus it further segments the population into smarties and newbies. All that's really necessary is for everyone to be tolerant, accepting and encouraging.
I think the best way to overcome newbie 'noise' is to help them quickly get beyond the newbie level with courteous, if also repetitive, answers. And always remember that what they are, you once were. On Jan 14, 3:33 pm, Ricardo Tomasi <ricardob...@gmail.com> wrote: > Not sure a newbies list would help. They wouldn't help each other > much, lol :) Seriously, it would be another list for us to join, and I > bet a lot of the participants in here wouldn't care about it. Just use > the 'daily digest' option and don't read what you don't want to, > that's what I do. > > - ricardo > > On Jan 14, 3:44 pm, "Rick Faircloth" <r...@whitestonemedia.com> wrote: > > > You and I both know, Charlie, from this group and especially from CF-Talk > > > that there are ways to do "encouraging education" and then there are ways > > > to commit "discouraging education." It's all in the tone of the reply. > > > Personally, I think it's time for jQuery to take the route of CF-Talk > > > and begin a jQuery beginners list, as well. It's hard for one list to serve > > > the needs of such a wide range of experience and competence. > > > Experienced users get frustrated with repeated basic questions, and > > beginners > > > get frustrated with the lack of understanding and patience with their needs. > > > If there is a list for "jQuery-Newbies-en"., then anyone who signs up for > > > that list knows what kind of interaction and questions to expect. > > > For jQuery to survive and thrive in the long-run, the community must make > > > beginners feel welcome. Even using the resources of a community, such as > > the > > > docs, takes some time for beginners to figure out and understand. > > Especially > > > since the docs have been a little sketchy on explanation and helping someone > > > brand new to concepts understand the implications and what's written > > "between > > > the lines of code." > > > So, bring on the new "jQuery-Newbies-en" list! > > > Rick > > > From: jquery-en@googlegroups.com [mailto:jquery...@googlegroups.com] On > > Behalf Of Charlie Griefer > > Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 11:33 AM > > To: jquery-en@googlegroups.com > > Subject: [jQuery] Re: In this code, what would $(this) in the success part > > refer to? > > > but educating someone in how to ask a good question really -is- helping > > them :) > > >http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html > > > On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 4:24 AM, donb <falconwatc...@comcast.net> wrote: > > > I don't know what can be more discouraging that the standard 'use > > google' or 'that question has been asked/answered too many times' > > discussion. Folks, this is a discussion forum. People range from > > novice to expert. The experts eventually get tired of answering a > > novice question and get testy about it. And it invariable degrades > > into name-calling. Besides, searching for 'this' will be a futile > > exercise because the word is just too common.. > > > Searching is only going to be successful when you can formulate a good > > search query. But as pointed out, there usually are a bunch of > > 'answers' that may be misleading, create further questions, are just > > wrong, or they may appear to be nonapplicable for some reason. Even > > when the answer is found, it may not be recognized. The documentation > > is not perfect and I find the examples are often quite trivial and > > sometimes ambiguous. And often we have people whose primary language > > is not English and they may struggle (or fail) to translate those > > answers into their own language. (Yes, I know this is the jQuery- > > English forum) > > > There's no need to lecture anyone on 'proper' use of the forum, > > particularly when the lecture/lecturer also goes contrary to decent > > and/or proper use of the forum. As has been shown above, the effort > > it takes to lecture typically far exceeds the effort it takes to > > assist. > > > Still a good motto: 'if you can't say something nice then don't say > > anything at all.' > > > -- > > I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my life. I love my > > wife. And I wish you my > > kind of success.
