Maureen Chambers wrote:
Ron Ferguson wrote: "Mike, Whilst I have no doubt that I am much, much
closer to your father's age than yours I am afraid that I am a little
reluctant to admit to the classification of 'technologically challenged' "
It's okay Ron, my Old Man was in denial for a long time. It took a long
time for him to admit that, in his words, he was now finding it 'a
little more difficult to RTFM' than he used to. Now, he doesn't mind.
Just call number one son when the VCR needs to be configured. He won't
move to a DVD or PVR because there are 'too many buttons on the
remotes'! You appear, from various missives to the group, to have had
some prior experience with computers, at an age whilst technical facts
still 'went in'.
I feel the same way Ron. Mike implies "senior" and "complete dumbo" go
(or probably go) hand in hand.
I'm sorry if that's the way it came across. It certainly wasn't my
intention to equate 'senior' with 'complete dumbo'. You must admit
though, in general, genealogy is taken up by those people with more time
on their hands i.e. retirees, and that does tend to attribute a certain
category of age to the practitioners of the hobby.
It just seemed that I, at 56, am probably one of the younger members of
LUG and have the added advantage(?) of having worked with computers
since I was 18! Perhaps I sometimes let my exasperation at the antics of
some newbies overflow at times.
I still fail to see why some people are so reluctant to experiment with
new concepts and features: after all that's what the Sample files are
there for! Instead, they prefer to fire off a quick message to the LUG
in the hope that an allowance will be made for their unfamiliarity with
both the product and the 'Net. God! There are places within newsgroups
where newbies get eaten for breakfast just because they won't conform to
the perceived standards of the groups. And, like here, they go away in a
huff and miss out on the reams of information and experience that the
denizens of the groups can supply if they'd only just grit their teeth
and hang in for a while. What's wrong with lurking for a few days to see
how the wind blows and get a feel for how best to approach the list?
People will help people. It's in their nature to do so. What some people
do not like is being made to feel that they are being taken advantage
of. That has happened quite recently. I *will* help people, provided
that the questions being asked are couched in terms that allow the more
experienced of us, to have a realistic chance of answering the question,
rather than having to press (interrogate?) the questioner for details of
what they think their problem is. So, in that respect: Yes, there can be
dumb-seeming questions.
Chest feeling a lot lighter now. Back to lurking again.
--
Regards,
Mike Fry
Johannesburg.
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