Are we as good as we think we are?

The consensus of opinion here is that we do a good job at supporting the Arduino project. However, there are some individuates who do not think we do. It is always interesting to get an outside perspective so here is a small extract from some correspondence I recently had:-

....... in my experience people with above average intelligence such as most on here tend to lack good communication skills, on forums which is a medium that one cannot easily judge emotion or intention of the written word so easily you find that this causes a bit of an attitude, some forums are much worse then others, honestly the attitude I see on here is one of the worst I have seen in a long time!

When someone asks a question eventually someone will respond back with a very cut and dry answer, if that person then tries to expand on that answer here it either goes unanswered or you get back a response that pretty much mirrors the first one without addressing it.

Is this justified?
Do we need to look at ourselves?
In other words is it him or is it me (us)?

@Grumpy_Mike: It is not you. You have the most inappropriate username here. :slight_smile:

There are always a few ill-mannered responses from some users on all forums. I know this will do another turd-stir, but that was solved on the other forum I use when they started the karma, and the karma seems to be helping here already. Bad attitudes really show in that number.

The other forum I use has the ability to give negative karma. There are users there that have negative karma. You know to disregard them.

As a relatively new user of Arduino and this forum (about 10 months now) I do see where the person is coming from, maybe as I become more proficient in all things Arduino and C++ the simple and seemingly stupid questions new users ask will effect me the same way (though I hope not). Most of the simple questions can be answered by searching the forums but as a new user you won't know how to put the question or maybe even how to search. Another thing I can see both sides of is when new users ask for help and they just get hints. They will never learn if they don't try to figure it out for themselves but if they don't get that initial help then they may become frustrated and the Arduino end up stuffed in a box never to be used again. A fine line between helping/teaching and just doing the work for them.

In other words is it him or is it me (us)?

Most likely, it's a bit of both (and I'm referring to us there). I, personally, don't see that technical forums are the right place for long winded conversations. I should add, though, that at work, I'm also criticised for giving 'short and to the point' answers to people. It is my experience, gained from thirty years working in IT, that the better your skills at communicating with machines, the worse your skills with other people tend to be (or is that just me).

I think it's all about how people take things. Some newbies do seem to ask questions that suggest that thay haven't tried using the search feature even though in itself it isn't very good! So they are new, they don't realise that the same question was asked last week, and the week before...

I also get the impression that the attitude of some of the moderators seems to have become more 'hard line' in the last week or two, but again some of the users have become more 'agressive' too, almost as though they believe that they have a right to expect that forum users will answer their question no matter how complex.

I think the comments made miss one important point - someone often does come back with an answer - it needn't be so. And from what I have seen the answer gets repeated when the OP seems to have ignored it.

if that person then tries to expand on that answer here it either goes unanswered

This works both ways too. More than once, I've looked at a supposedly urgent post, and done a fair bit of research, and/or written and tested code and posted it, along with some explanation, and the OP is never seen again.

almost as though they believe that they have a right to expect that forum users will answer their question no matter how complex.

There are certainly some users like that. The ones that really annoy me are those that start 'I've just got an Arduino, and I want it to do x, but I don't want to learn how to program it'.

There's a very sarcastic undertone which runs deep through the staff here, for me it's live and learn, and a question's always a good question... but when they put next to no effort into even formulating just the wording to something so very vague.... i see it as fair, as long as it does not turn into ridicule or hatred, at most a tease and no more... I see no harm in how this site is mod and run, if anything one could say staff are ocassionally picky and sarcastic (With often good reason) so why not, they don't get paid to answer morons but they do anyway (so yay for them!)

I used to run a forum (never wanted it, never made it, just my followers decided to do so add me then make me admin?!)

I soon worked out being mod/admin is actual real work, work in the real world people get paid to do... i let anyone argue bicker, i let anyone challenge me and I honestly believed being open and honest would be the best way but people who used the rival software would get on and flame and cause wars and i'd never delete just challenge their views and opinions and when you've exhausted all avenues they lie, i never met so many pathological liars in my life!

So kudos to the mod/admins, nobody else would do real work without being paid :slight_smile:

the staff here

You mean "the unpaid volunteers here", right? no one is getting paid for answering questions here.

-j

kg4wsv:

the staff here

You mean "the unpaid volunteers here", right? no one is getting paid for answering questions here.

-j

Beat me to it.

kg4wsv:

the staff here

You mean "the unpaid volunteers here", right? no one is getting paid for answering questions here.

This forum is a bit different than most. On the other forums I have used, the moderators and administrators are company employees. Maybe that is what new users do not understand? I didn't. I thought all moderators here were employees. I know better now.

This works both ways too. More than once, I've looked at a supposedly urgent post, and done a fair bit of research, and/or written and tested code and posted it, along with some explanation, and the OP is never seen again.

+1, or they carry on totally ignoring your post.

I fess up to having got more terse lately, I've taken to not posting now rather than say what I'd like to.

I have seen this from the other side as well, I'm on other forums in areas that I'm not experienced in and I've occasionally got responses like

"Just add ABC to the XYZ"

And I think "WTF is ABC and XYZ?"


Rob

I have seen this from the other side as well, I'm on other forums in areas that I'm not experienced in

Yes this is good for the sole.

and I've occasionally got responses like
"Just add ABC to the XYZ"

Yes been there got that. However if you reply and say something like, "sorry I am very new to all this could you say exactly what ABC is". Or better yet "sorry but I have Googled ABC and it can be sevral things, which one do you mean exactly"
It is a little pantomime dance we all have to do to establish what level of help is needed. It is important to understand both the question and the level of answer required.

Story:-
Little girl asks her dad "Where did I come from", dad asks mum to explain, mum takes girl into a quite room and, having prepared for this day, takes out the books, diagrams and goes through the full facts of life works, including the video. Then she asks her, "and why did you want to know?"
"Oh", says the girl "my friend Jane comes from Birmingham, and I wanted to know where I came from."

:slight_smile:

....... in my experience people with above average intelligence such as most on here tend to lack good communication skills,

Smart folk don't write purdy good. Makes prefuct senility to me.

cjdelphi:
There's a very sarcastic undertone which runs deep through the staff here...

Hey, AWOL! They're talkin' about you over here!

I'm not. AWOL and I have had our disagreements about servos, but despite my accusation he was slow to help, I don't think that is true. He contributes a lot here. Considering what you all are paid, let the one without sin cast the first stone, and I am as guilty as most.

There's a very sarcastic undertone which runs deep through the staff here...

Hey, AWOL! They're talkin' about you over here!

Like I'm going to take notice of that.

Staff? Not even hired help.

Quote
....... in my experience people with above average intelligence such as most on here tend to lack good communication skills, on forums which is a medium that one cannot easily judge emotion or intention of the written word so easily you find that this causes a bit of an attitude, some forums are much worse then others, honestly the attitude I see on here is one of the worst I have seen in a long time!

When someone asks a question eventually someone will respond back with a very cut and dry answer, if that person then tries to expand on that answer here it either goes unanswered or you get back a response that pretty much mirrors the first one without addressing it.

Is this justified?
Do we need to look at ourselves?
In other words is it him or is it me (us)?

Well, it's him, obviously.
Look at the structure of those sentences. Dreadful.

:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

SurferTim:
@Grumpy_Mike: It is not you. You have the most inappropriate username here. :slight_smile:

You just haven't seen him get going lately...

:wink:

/we like you as you are, GM... :smiley:

I think sometimes that a lot of frustration comes out of the member rating system.

If someone asks a question, I tend to ignore their indicated ranking (newbie, junior, full etc) and try to probe their level of expertise.
Sometimes the probing is taken as condescension (by members with more experience than their ranking would suggest) and sometimes triggers an adverse reaction - "if I knew that, I wouldn't be asking the question - I'm a noob".
Both reactions are equally valid, and I try to tailor my responses from that point onwards.
Sometime I fail.

(My ranking was once "newbie", but it just meant I hadn't been a forum member for very long)