General Discussions

**JeremyMiller** · 02-27-2008, 11:13 PM

I don't know about all of you, but my blood pressure rises every time I see some newbie who thinks that filling out a form for registration, ignoring the rules, and being lucky enough to find the New Thread link qualifies them to post and they don't bother to use code tags. As of now, I'm personally refusing to answer any such threads. Morons be damned. Er, not morons, but people who choose to be moronic. That's a bit better.

Why, oh why, do these people do that? It's like coming into a forum and crapping all over the place and saying, "Now that I've **** on you, would you mind answering my question?" Un-freaking-believable!

If you're new and thinking that you're so bad at programming that you need help, but so superior that you don't want to learn how to post properly, please take note: You'll lose people who can help you by acting in such a pompous fashion.

Just had to express myself after opening yet another wanna-be-moron's thread who has code in 2 different languages and not a single code/html/php tag for ease of posting.

Thanks for listening and, in advance, thanks to those who read this and then post properly.

**jamestl2** · 02-28-2008, 12:38 AM

I think you forgot to place some tags in that post, Jeremy:

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeremyMiller

<rant>I don't know about all of you, but my blood pressure rises every time I see some newbie who thinks that filling out a form for registration, ignoring the rules, and being lucky enough to find the New Thread link qualifies them to post and they don't bother to use code tags. As of now, I'm personally refusing to answer any such threads. Morons be damned. Er, not morons, but people who choose to be moronic. That's a bit better.

Why, oh why, do these people do that? It's like coming into a forum and crapping all over the place and saying, "Now that I've **** on you, would you mind answering my question?" Un-freaking-believable!

If you're new and thinking that you're so bad at programming that you need help, but so superior that you don't want to learn how to post properly, please take note: You'll lose people who can help you by acting in such a pompous fashion.

Just had to express myself after opening yet another wanna-be-moron's thread who has code in 2 different languages and not a single code/html/php tag for ease of posting.

Thanks for listening and, in advance, thanks to those who read this and then post properly.</rant>

**JeremyMiller** · 02-28-2008, 12:41 AM

ROFLMFAO. Thanks for catching that.

**Arenlor** · 02-28-2008, 12:58 AM

I wish that people would preview their posts and think it over more often, I nearly posted about six different threads yesterday that after thinking it over for a minute I got my answer to the question. I'm also sick of people forgetting how to use google, 99% of the answers are a google away. The correct code/html/php tags also help us see where they may have made a single typo (such as forgetting a ' in a php script) or any other numerous such things. I am also sick of people asking us to review their blog, it's a blog, there is a blog section, if I went to review a blog I'd look at two things, what does the template they use look like, and is the blog readable. When I go to review a site I look at everything, and I expect that the person actually put some effort into it and isn't just hoping to get their numbers up by having us visit it. A blog is a blog, you didn't put any effort into it. The worst people though are those who say something like "I'm too lazy to learn how to do this, can someone do it for free?" I often do it for practice, but it annoys me when people aren't even willing to learn. I can see people wanting a website for whatever reason, finding this place and coming here speaking English as well as tech support with the same average level of tech knowledge asking for help because all the < and > confuse them, but if you're too lazy to put any effort into something then why do it? Free money? Though the one who wins today's and well I'm thinking this week's and maybe even longer's contest of "Bite Me" is this guy, talking so kindly about geniuses http://www.webmaster-talk.com/php-fo...t-waiting.html I think he forgot about one important rule, and maybe two others:
1. The most infamous people who nearly got away (BTK for example, amongst many others) are MENSA members. Don't make them mad at you, I happen to have turned MENSA down for this reason, but I can still be creative.
Now for the two he may not remember:
2. Always backup your database before doing anything to it.
3. Always check anything you're given to make sure that it's not malicious.

**NullPointer** · 02-28-2008, 01:14 AM

Usually when someone asks for help and just spits all of there code out in plaintext I just ignore it all together or if I'm feeling patient I'll copy it into dreamweaver where its easier to read.

What makes the whole matter worse is generally someone who posts asking for help does not have the best coding habbits, which is fine, I mean they are here to learn. My point is you don't have to look at too many threads before you see that there are PHP tags that help format your code.

**joder** · 02-28-2008, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arenlor

I'm also sick of people forgetting how to use google, 99% of the answers are a google away.

There have been times when someone asked a question, I googled it, found the answer on the first hit. Replied and they are like thank you, thank you.

So many people ask "how do I find CSS templates". And I'm thinking Duh!

Quote:

Originally Posted by NullPointer

Usually when someone asks for help and just spits all of there code out in plaintext I just ignore it all together or if I'm feeling patient I'll copy it into dreamweaver where its easier to read.

When I see a post where all the code starts on the first column, isn't broken up into lines properly, etc. I click the X.

I also can't stand it when people run their site through a validator and want to know how to fix something simple when it gives them the line number and the problem.

**ADAM Web Design** · 02-28-2008, 10:53 AM

function confused () {
alert ("Whatever do you mean, Jeremy Miller?");
}

Ooooooooops.

Seriously, this doesn't bother me. A lot of newbies don't even know about bb code tags, so I just let it go. The same thing goes for using search engines to find information...sometimes they just don't know.

What bothers me more are people who don't know things and still give ad nauseam advice because someone else told it to them first. That's more of an SEO forum issue than it is a code forum issue, though.

**Capt Quirk** · 02-28-2008, 11:35 AM

<rant>I was wondering what he was talking about, so thanks Adam for pointing out the BB code tags. Never have used them, and don't see why I should. But, I have more on my mind than pleasing an anal retentive type.

And I also agree google is an awesome tool, and use it frequently. However, I have also been on many forums where they insist you use the search feature. Ok, I have no problem with that either... normally. The problem with many of these website search features are many- Must wait 60 seconds between search attempts. Gee, my fat fingers accidently hit an extra key, or the wrong key, or my search phrase was just off. Now I just wasted 60 seconds for nothing. Or, they are limited, and you can't use keywords with 3 letters. So, what does the do for my search on DVD Authoring? I get 5 Gazillion results for writing books. Should I spend the next week trying to read all those, or just post my question?

Sometimes I need something spelled out, that other sources may gloss over, so I ask. That is why this site, and hundreds of thousands of other forums are here for, right?

Just my thoughts </rant>

**Cheshire_cat** · 02-29-2008, 12:16 AM

So I am a bit confused what are people not putting tags around that is making you so upset; links or images, because other than that or maybe some text effects I did not realize other tags were needed in posting in a forum.

Is my post wrong?

**JeremyMiller** · 02-29-2008, 12:22 AM

People are doing this:

Help me with my code. I don't know how to code and don't want to pay to get this fixed:

if (I studied a bit || I hired someone to help me) {
echo "I could answer my own question";
} else {
echo "I need help";
}

instead of using tags so that it will be rendered for more easier assistance:

PHP Code:


			
if (I studied a bit || I hired someone to help me) {
 echo "I could answer my own question";
} else {
 echo "I need help";
}

The latter makes it substantially easier to help. As a corollary, my editor, Crimson Editor, color codes files so that I can more easily read my own code, but if I tried to use only Notepad, then I wouldn't have that advantage and code would be much harder to edit.

The thing is, is that the editor for the forum allows you to just highlight what you want and then click a button and it will put the tags around the code, so one doesn't even need to have the 'programming knowledge' to put the tags around them.