ON POSTING: FORUMS and SUBJECT LINES

[ckamin]

Like "somebody"® made some organised action to make as much noise on forums as possible.

I don't believe in any conspiracy theory here, in that regard. If you follow US politics (and my first question would be..WHY?) it might be blamed on George W. Bush or lately maybe Tom Delay. It just seems to be a trend here these days. Sorry to use a little dry political sarcasm, but I couldn't resist.

My guess is that since these perceived increases in lame/odd postings seem to occur in cycles, it has everything to do with the new school year/academic cycle. They should just make a new category here for "My buddy/friend/latest squeeze gave me this disc and I am clueless as to what it is supposed to do so please help me since I don't want to look dumb." or "I was told to download this and now I don't have a clue as to what it is." Many times, if someone just gave you a disc, they might not have been able to make it work either. They just wanted you to think you were missing out on something and make you feel inferior. How is THAT for a conspiracy theory? The main reason I suspect students is primarily the purpose that they could use a Knoppix CD for. It can allow them the use of a system that they would otherwise not be able to use as they might like to. I will leave that up to your imagination. I had worked within the educational system in the US long enough to have adopted that theory.

The main reason I think people do not get help is because they do not have a clue how to ask for it, or they are just too lazy to do what it is they need to do to find the answers. I worked with a technical hotline on occasion and was frustrated by calls made by someone looking for me to do their diagnostic work for them. If they did not cover the basics on their own, I simply did not assist them until they had done so. many times the concern was resolved by following procedures outlined in the diagnostic and service manuals. They were just looking to get a quick answer to something that they were too lazy to find on their own. It's the refusal to RTFB or RTFM thing. I suspect that instant gratification stuff all over again here. Someone needs to have a bit of patience when asking for help also. I'm sure that everybody is just standing by waiting for that "Special" post to make their day complete.

In order for someone to get proper help in a reasonable amount of time, they need to do the basics and THEN give as much information about what they are experiencing as they can, even if some of it might not seem relevant. THEN we also need to know exactly WHAT hardware/software they are working with, giving as much detail as they can. It is simply NOT enough to know that there are two drives! What type of connection do they have, ATA, SATA, SCSI, or Vulcan Mind transferrence? What brand/manufacturer is responsible for their existence? The amount of memory, type of graphics adaptor, network cards, sound cards, main chipsets, cpu, manufacturer AND model number, if available, ETC!!! Then we need to know if the system ever worked with any version of software whatsoever! Did it stop working with Windows and now it won't boot Knoppix? It simply MUST be Knoppix that is a fault there, just couldn't be a hardware issue! Those clouds of factory smoke coming out of the case should have NOTHING to do with it since it happened a few days ago and is not happening now. I won't mention it because it simply MUST have NOTHING to do with the problem and I'm just too lazy to type that info here anyway.

The main thing I have noticed in this, and other forums is simply that someone will not go through more than a few pages or posts before they decide to stop looking for a solution and post a new thread. Many times the answer is there if they only looked a little harder. If they find something, they just seem to chime in sometimes with "I have that exact same problem", and then offer no more information about the concern as did the original poster. Many times they are unable to find something because someone else did not give a good description in the subject line either!

Then there is the person who gets pointed in the right direction and then fails to get the right information from the link that someone provided. They seem to miss the point. If someone gave you a link to this thread, you should read it and realize why someone pointed you here. THEN you need to do what it is that you need to in order to get the help that you asked for. It isn't brain surgery, it's just common sense. If there is one thing that I would include in every curriculum in every school in every country, it is HOW TO DO RESEARCH AND FIND ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS!!!!!!! (AND not look like a deer caught in the headlights while doing so) (AND not annoy too many other people in the process either!)

These are the same people that get indignant when you ask them for more information or explain the need to check the basics first. Many times the answer awaits in a faq or a sticky. They just did not bother to look any further or spend the time doing a little more research on their own.

I am NOT saying that everybody that asks for help here is a moron, but there are a few that really take the cake from time to time.

One must take the time to recognize the people who reply to many of the posts in this forum and others. They give freely of their own time with the intention of helping others resolve issues with whatever they are working with. The vast majority, if not all, are not compensated in any way for doing this and many times do not even get a "thank you" for their assistance. It is a gift of someone's time. I'm sure many could think of things they would rather do than go through these forums looking to offer assistance to somebody they don't know.

I cannot blame anyone for adopting a cynical outlook while attempting to help many of these people resolve their concerns. It is often a thankless endeavor and many people take the help for granted. I have seen many posts like the one that is used in the example given elsewhere in this thread. That is how I ended up here in the first place. I was curious to see if there was another repository of good knowledge and advice about Knoppix. There actually is good information here. It might not be all about Knoppix, but if someone read through this thread carefully and completely, they might have an idea of how to post a question, in the right category, with enough information so that they might get the attention of someone that could help them AND not have someone need to point them here in the first place.

I will now step/fall off of my soapbox or something to that effect and "That's all I have to say about that!" Sorry for the rant.

[TheProphet]

I don't believe in any conspiracy theory here, in that regard. If you follow US politics (and my first question would be..WHY?) it might be blamed on George W. Bush or lately maybe Tom Delay. It just seems to be a trend here these days. Sorry to use a little dry political sarcasm, but I couldn't resist..

Since our government has a policy of screwing up other people's governments on a regular basis, that would answer "why follow U.S. politics"
But the main reason for a surge might be when a new version of the distro gets published. Just imho. And yeah, that happens very much following school and university cycles.