Egos and Icons

Ye' old general discussion board. Basically, for everything that isn't covered elsewhere. Come here to shoot the breeze, shoot your mouth off, or whatever suits your fancy.
This forum is not for asking programming related questions.

Moderator: General Moderators

Is it just me or do we need ego control

Yes
1
11%
No
3
33%
Only you do...ego-maniac
2
22%
I dont have an ego...I just think i'm the best
3
33%
 
Total votes: 9

alex.barylski
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Egos and Icons

Post by alex.barylski »

In regards to...

viewtopic.php?t=41991

Being a vetran of online communities...

localBBS's (first time I connected was with a 300 BAUD - i think) to compuserve...to todays full fledged phpBB... :)

Programming communities are so full of ego...

no other communities are so dedicated to being the best...bodybuilding for instance...which you would think would be full of ego...surpisingly aint bad at all...in fact very encouraging if anything...I figure cuz it very obvious who the best is...

Unfortunately...most of the winners are usually predisposed to have great bodies...

Back to programming...

Iam guilty myself of crowing about my skillset...perhaps for good reason...i've spent a majority of my life dedicated to learning everything there is to know about computers (programming,hardware,security,etc...)

However...the old adage "the more you know, the more you realize the less you know" really starts to hit home...

No matter how long i've been at this bit...i'll never be a master at everything...at best I'll become an expert at things i enjoy...and reach only novice level at others...

The point is...doesnt anyone else realize this???

Comparing 42 years of programming experince against 6 years is rediculous...

Yes 42 years is a long time...and I imagine comes with a vast amount of knowledge...

Thing is...in high tech...1 year is a huge time span...much can change...

Besides if you spend 20 years writting COBOL and never bothering to learn anything else...thats alot of wasted time...however most programmers are prretty good at adapting to new technologies...so thats not likely the case, but still...

My point...

I don't usually brag or boast...i'm actually pretty laid back...

But when I ask questions...i find some replies be-littling...which is maybe justifed...cuz im sure this site is crawling with newbies...but still...to much detail if not asked for isn't always a good thing...

For instance...one reply I received went something like...
When I coded in .net it was in C# which is a C based language
More than half my life programming...and I don't know what C# is??? :lol:

Besides...its not really based on C at all...it borrows from C's syntax...other than that there is very little in common...

Needless to say this was annoying...even for a laid back dude like me...I can only take so much :) Many replies i've recived are like this or corrective in nature with little or no justifcation as to why thier answer was right...other than its because the book they just read....said so...so it must be right!!!

I should note that this happens not only here but many other forums which i frequent...

Anyways can't we all just get along??? :P

Without trying to out do each other? Sure competition is a good thing, but make it formal so there is no she said/he said BS and there is a distinct winner :)

With many years experience behind me in just about every avenue of computers...I realize i'm not the best...there is always going to be someone better at something than me...example:

I cannot say ihave received a plethora of positive replies here, but...there have been two occasions i have...

d11wtq assisted me in regex (i have little interest but a decent understanding) in fact wrote the whole thing for me...and helped me with a problem when I was using preg_ instead of ereg_ or the other way around...the point...his reply didn't belittle, nor did he elaborate to the point of bordem, etc...

Roja although slightly demeaning...was atleast convincing with his statement:
Its important to make a clean distinction here. Tables themselves are not evil. For displaying *tabular data*, tables are the right choice. Tables for LAYOUT, however, is non-ideal. Most high-end developers left tables for layout behind years ago.
Although admittedly...i'm not going to jump the band wagon and drop tables for CSS(I'd have to see my website done in CSS and if it worked - then i'd start using CSS)...his point IMHO was 100% accurate and not worth arging any more :)

My point...clearly these two have a better understanding of CSS and regex than I do...and I have no problems admitting that so long as you prove it...effectively...not just based on something you read or heard from someone else...

Hope I made sense...i'm looped on T3's :?

Cheers :)
Charles256
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Post by Charles256 »

hey! i'm a pretty nice guy!
alex.barylski
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Post by alex.barylski »

Charles256 wrote:hey! i'm a pretty nice guy!
I agree...so far as I know anyways :)

Thats notwhat the thread is about though :)

BRB - need a smoke :)
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Burrito
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Post by Burrito »

Hockey,

I think we all do our best to help other people. The fact that we're taking the time to even respond is an effort in and of itself. I see your point in that some replies are much more curt and could use a little extra / better wording, but at the same time, some questions are equally as filled with derision.

for example, if someone asks a question that the answer to is so painfully obvious and the inquirer is just too lazy to do a little leg-work on their own, they should expect something farily abrupt for a response. I don't think it has anything to do with ego-tripping, or an "I know more than you attitude". It's more of a "did you at least try this on your own first" attitude.

I do my best to respond as politely as possible to people, but there have been a few times when I've taken a significant amount of my time to help someone and they either don't try what I suggested or have their own ideas and then fire back with a response that is less-than-gracious. Those are the times when I get 'peeved' and might show some 'attitude'....but they are few and far between.

I think for the most part, on the whole, everyone here is an outstanding asset to this community and the 'tude to which you're referring is pale by comparison to a lot of other forums I've visited.
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Post by Charles256 »

hockey! heck,i've seen a fwe curt replies from you now that i think bout it :-D heh. but it's okay. most peolpe will get over it. I think burrito has a good point, I find myself getting annoyed occasionally and I can barely do "hello world!" :-D
alex.barylski
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Post by alex.barylski »

Charles256 wrote:hockey! heck,i've seen a fwe curt replies from you now that i think bout it :-D heh. but it's okay. most peolpe will get over it. I think burrito has a good point, I find myself getting annoyed occasionally and I can barely do "hello world!" :-D
I never excluded myself from the ego band wagon...just its usually in response to a belittling comment made towards me...

When the responder assumes i know nothing, etc...

I agree...thats its possible, my questions may have been meager, but usually pretty direct and still...

Perhaps im lookimg to deep into everything :?
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hawleyjr
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Post by hawleyjr »

Hey All, no more finger pointing or I'll lock this thread. (Spoken in a soft voice)
alex.barylski
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Post by alex.barylski »

hawleyjr wrote:Hey All, no more finger pointing or I'll lock this thread. (Spoken in a soft voice)
Who finger pointed??? :?

I mention two members, but in a positive light...no negative connotations here boss :)
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AKA Panama Jack
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Post by AKA Panama Jack »

Burrito wrote:for example, if someone asks a question that the answer to is so painfully obvious and the inquirer is just too lazy to do a little leg-work on their own, they should expect something farily abrupt for a response.
Not from me here. If I know the answer I will give it as it takes far less time than trying to DEMEAN the person asking the question. I have seen too often some person, sometimes a moderator, here put a person down instead of answering their question. So what if it is easy or fairly obvious TO YOU. Giving a putdown response just turns people off and gives the impression of snobbery and inflated egos.

If a person doesn't want to give help on a forum like this then they should either be quiet and not put the questioner down or leave and not come back because the put downs damage the reputation of the site.

And honestly the search features for phpBB2 are horrible so posting a snide remark telling people to use the search is almost useless. The item you might be looking for could be located at reply number 50 in a thread that has 200 replies. To find exactly what you want using the search you will have to go through the first 49 replies to find the 50th with what you are searching for. The search is only halfway useful in phpBB2 if the thread has only a FEW replies and even then you have alot of searching to do.

Everytime I see someone tell a questioner to use the search I want to smack them upside the head for telling them something that is useless most of the time.

Maybe if people were more helpful instead of posting a stuckup use the search or find it yourself response then a thread like this might not get started.

It takes just as much time to ANSWER their question as it does to tell them to use the search or something like that..
alex.barylski
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Post by alex.barylski »

Not quite the direction I wanted this thread to go in, but...
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Burrito
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Post by Burrito »

my point is:

I think people respond with as much energy and effort as the people who post their questions. If it's obvious that the poster hasn't made any effort on their own, they're likely to get a response with an equal amount of effort. I'm not condoning this, nor do I think I do it, but I do feel that posters need to try things on their own...that's how you learn.

If they just want things hand fed to them, they should post in 'Job Hunt' or 'Volunteer Work'. Part of learning is knowing how to search for things and try them out on your own, and IMHO, you learn a LOT more and a LOT more quickly when you figure things out for yourself.
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John Cartwright
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Post by John Cartwright »

Everytime I see someone tell a questioner to use the search I want to smack them upside the head for telling them something that is useless most of the time.
I would hope not. Perhaps you should have a look at our General Posting Guidelines;)
Twiglematic wrote:
  1. Try a search first - Google, the PHP manual, the MySQL manual, Phuse and this forum are all good resources.
Although I do agree that on occasion there is a "search!" or alike reply.. which is obviously unhelpful. 99% of the time usually seems pretty helpful as the search terms are given .. :? Granted sometimes the user will not know the search terms prior, so given it usually solves the problem.

Not to mention that most of the time I've ever told some one to search something, I would try it out first unless confident it would come up top 10 in the search results. I mean I use the search extremely frequently, mostly the reason why I barely post questions.. perhpas your searching abilities need refining.
Charles256
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Post by Charles256 »

hockey,maybe you're not looking too deep, maybe you just haven't had enough to drink yet :-D
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AKA Panama Jack
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Post by AKA Panama Jack »

Burrito wrote:my point is:

I think people respond with as much energy and effort as the people who post their questions. If it's obvious that the poster hasn't made any effort on their own, they're likely to get a response with an equal amount of effort. I'm not condoning this, nor do I think I do it, but I do feel that posters need to try things on their own...that's how you learn.
That's great and if a person feels that way they should refrain from posting anything. This way the poster is more likely to look more on their own for an answer. It post a snide remark about their question is just being nasty for nasty sake.

It kind of like "If you don't have anything good to say don't say anything." or "If you don't want to answer the posters question don't post anything.".

Maybe we need to create a new search module for phpBB2 that works like some other forums. Where if you enter something to search for it displays the thread name for each instance found by the search but the link for the thread name is to the exact reply that has the match. vBulletin boards do this. You would see maybe 3 of the same thread but each link would point to a different response. Like this...

TABLE vs CSS

TABLE vs CSS

TABLE vs CSS

You have the same thread name but each link points to a different reply. If the phpBB2 search worked in a similar manner it would be very useful and telling someone to search the forums would actually mean something useful. :)
Last edited by AKA Panama Jack on Tue Dec 20, 2005 6:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Buddha443556
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Post by Buddha443556 »

I think you all need to drink a few more Egg Nogs.
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