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View Full Version : has the community become less helpful or are my questions just getting higher level?



LTFC2020
April 28th, 2009, 03:47 PM
my first 100 or so problems/ questions were almost all dealt with by the community
this seems to be getting less so
reason?

benj1
April 28th, 2009, 03:58 PM
i havent noticed the forum being quieter, if thats what youre asking.

maybe its because you are such a linux grand master now that no one apart from linus himself can answer your questions :)

gnomeuser
April 28th, 2009, 04:13 PM
As time goes by your questions are likely to get more advanced, otherwise they would not indicate you getting smarter or learning. I have however also detected a bunch of uninformed trolls who make the forums really unpleasant to be part of, maybe the users who were able to help you simply got tired and started coming here less.

I myself often feel the need to decrease the time I spend here helping out simply because it's frustratingly impossible to have a technical debate because of uninformed people who spew the opinions published by known trolls over and over again never listening to counter arguments or facts nor actually participating in the threads they post in.

Kareeser
April 28th, 2009, 04:14 PM
Look over your recent posts... unless you're still asking the community for advice on how to install your graphics card drivers, I'm wagering that you just ask harder questions now that you can fix the easy problems yourself.

A quick look at my own posting history shows the following:
Setting up a diskless client uses TFTP and the like
Backing up individual SQL databases on a server setup
Theming X forwarded applications through SSH

Not exactly beginner stuff :)

Kareeser
April 28th, 2009, 04:17 PM
it's frustratingly impossible to have a technical debate because of uninformed people who spew the opinions published by known trolls over and over again never listening to counter arguments or facts nor actually participating in the threads they post in.

Perhaps it's time to start a new sub-forum where you need a certain amount of Karma/Prestige/whatnot to have rw privleges (whereas normal users are read-only).

Note that I did not say "Beans/Posts", since that's never an indicator of anything.

LTFC2020
April 28th, 2009, 04:17 PM
"I myself often feel the need to decrease the time I spend here helping out simply because it's frustratingly impossible to have a technical debate because of uninformed people who spew the opinions published by known trolls over and over again never listening to counter arguments or facts nor actually participating in the threads they post in."

I think you just summarised the internet gnomeuser :wink:

doas777
April 28th, 2009, 04:20 PM
As time goes by your questions are likely to get more advanced, otherwise they would not indicate you getting smarter or learning. I have however also detected a bunch of uninformed trolls who make the forums really unpleasant to be part of, maybe the users who were able to help you simply got tired and started coming here less.

I myself often feel the need to decrease the time I spend here helping out simply because it's frustratingly impossible to have a technical debate because of uninformed people who spew the opinions published by known trolls over and over again never listening to counter arguments or facts nor actually participating in the threads they post in.


Oh my, we're sorry. why don't you give us an exhaustive list of those known trolls, so we can be sure not to listen to them. or is a troll anyone who disagrees with you?

growled
April 28th, 2009, 04:21 PM
I've been lurking here a long time. The Forums seem just as annoying to me as they ever did. :D

Dragonbite
April 28th, 2009, 05:16 PM
As time goes by your questions are likely to get more advanced,

I'm noticing that as my questions get more involved, they get fewer hits (I have a couple out now that haven't even gotten a nibble). This is one reason why I sometimes post in multiple forums if it isn't highly distro-specific and see where I get any bites.

I'm not sure if the number of trolls on the forums is increasing because the number of people coming is increasing. If trolls make up 0.5% of the Ubuntu forum population, then going from 100,000 members (with 500 trolls) to the 821,062 (thus 4105.31 trolls) listed now is a significant rise in trolls ( 3605.31 ... gotta remember that .31 of a troll! )
:lolflag:

Kareeser
April 29th, 2009, 04:14 AM
.31, eh? Is that the poor troll who gets flames so badly that he changes his mind and comes back to Ubuntu?

chucky chuckaluck
April 29th, 2009, 04:28 AM
my first 100 or so problems/ questions were almost all dealt with by the community
this seems to be getting less so
reason?

when you say 100, unless you're exaggerating, why didn't you just go back to windows? (i would've gone back to file cards.)

LTFC2020
April 29th, 2009, 06:32 AM
because I would have had to ask 100 windows questions too ;)

sir_nasty
April 29th, 2009, 06:44 AM
I personally wouldn't fit in this category but I'd like to see a "high level" technical question forum for people who need uber support and admins have the option to move the thread up if it's difficult and drawing no response from the main forums... Criteria to base all this on? not a clue....

Saint Angeles
April 29th, 2009, 07:47 AM
.31, eh? Is that the poor troll who gets flames so badly that he changes his mind and comes back to Ubuntu?
no... that .31 troll is a little person!

lisati
April 29th, 2009, 07:50 AM
I've been lurking here a long time. The Forums seem just as annoying to me as they ever did. :D

I've been here longer, and could probably come up with something irrelevant and annoying.

ddrichardson
April 29th, 2009, 07:52 AM
I personally wouldn't fit in this category but I'd like to see a "high level" technical question forum for people who need uber support and admins have the option to move the thread up if it's difficult and drawing no response from the main forums... Criteria to base all this on? not a clue....
In fairness, by this stage people have learned that there are other sources of information. If you've been around Ubuntu for a while then you realise that asking a question about an Xorg server in Absolute Beginners is less fruitful than posting a question on their mailing list.

gnomeuser
April 29th, 2009, 02:04 PM
Oh my, we're sorry. why don't you give us an exhaustive list of those known trolls, so we can be sure not to listen to them. or is a troll anyone who disagrees with you?

There is a difference between a troll and someone who present a coherent argument for his case.

One should respect a well reasoned argument that goes against ones opinion.

One should not respect an uninformed opinion expressed using logical fallacies and without a willingness to debate nor learn or listen.

Thelasko
April 29th, 2009, 03:23 PM
I've made it a point to look through the "General Help" section, as the questions are usually more difficult and less likely to get answered.

I think the questions in the "Absolute Beginner Talk" are always more likely to be answered, no matter how difficult they are. There is simply more traffic in that section.

Kareeser
April 29th, 2009, 03:29 PM
I've made it a point to look through the "General Help" section, as the questions are usually more difficult and less likely to get answered.

I think the questions in the "Absolute Beginner Talk" are always more likely to be answered, no matter how difficult they are. There is simply more traffic in that section.

I've noticed that as well.

Plus, less traffic means my replies don't get sniped by someone who types just that little bit faster. heh heh.

Irihapeti
April 29th, 2009, 04:19 PM
I've noticed that my recent queries tend to go unanswered. I put this down to the fact that I do a lot of reading and googling first, and I've probably learned how to deal with many of the more basic problems.

That means that, when I get to the point of posting on the forum, it's likely that it's something unusual, or unique to my hardware or whatever. So I'm not really surprised if there's no response.

handy
April 29th, 2009, 04:36 PM
There is also the reality that quite a few old hands don't frequent these forums much, if at all these days, due to the closure of certain sub-forums that they found attractive.

The aforementioned situation has also been exacerbated for some of the old timers by the general increased abundance of mindless chatter within the community cafe.