Rant

[Carey]

It's that time of year again. When all the newbs sign up on this site and ask questions like "CAN U PLZ DO MY GAME 4 ME!!!!!!! IM A NEWB AND I HAVE A CULMINATING DUE AND I CANT DO IT HELP PLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????". Ahhhhhhhh....please help me from flaming them and getting kicked off this site. we need to have some sort of announcement that will tell them that no, we will not do thier culminating project for them and they can damn well do thier game by themselves. they have to learn that we will HELP them, not do thier project for them.


there. thats my rant, i feel a lot better now

does anyone support me or am i crazy?

[jernst]

lol i did notice an influx of those types of posts myself the last while

[btiffin]

You are not crazy, but I don't support your point of view.

I'm an old guy. But I'm a noob here, and other places just about everyday. It's part of exploring the vastness of the compsci arena. Getting used to local customs takes a while. Don't kick fresh newbies around (give them until at least a post count of 10 or 20, THEN go to town). Let them feel welcomed first, with subtle pointers to further reading or politely point out the errors or their ways. Don't get mad at them, just chuckle and offer a helping hand. S'better in my humble opinion. Persistent newbieness, well, PUNT.

Cheers

[jernst]

yeah i agree more with btiffin except for the ones who can't even use the search function on the forums, because like half of them are asking about the exact same program thats already been thoroughly discussed only a few days earlier....so thats slightly annoying, but i figure they'll catch on eventually.

[Aziz]

IIRC, there's a "Read here before posting!" sticky on every forum, and one of the top points is "We will not do your work". Of course, no one listens. You'll find that around December-January, and May-June there's a lot of "OMG I HAVE TEH FINAL PROGEKT DUE" and very bad posting habits. July & August are really, really dead on this site.

btiffin's got it right in that you have to give them a nudge (or a boot) in the right direction. Posting the solution doesn't help them, and it makes us sticklers look bad. Helping them solve a specific part is the best thing to do. If they can figure it out themselves, even better, but don't try to be wtd.

[Nick]

I agree to letting them get used to the site, but honestly, it's different to the lazy slackers who want us to do their projects, I don't think anyone here opposes to a helping hand, but just about all of us oppose to a doing hand

[Carey]

Im am not opposed to using my time to help people. I just disagree with the people who want us to do their project for them.

@btiffin: I was defining 'newb' as someone who comes on to this site to get us to do their project. I am not opposed to the 'new people' who ask for help and contribute their attempts at all. Im just fed up with the slackers that want to play games during their computer classes, then try to get someone else to do their work when they realize the due date's coming up and they haven't started. Sorry for the confusion.

[btiffin]

No confusion Carey; At least I don't think so (implying confusion). Frustration has to be vented. It's good for the soul.

And I'll agree. Lazy is lazy and deserves a good booting. A lot of people may come here with a wishful "let some one else do it for me 'tude". Partly cultural, but not always. Why get up to change channels when a remote can do it for you. etc, etc. Why learn the inner workings of an Operating System when MS tries its best to cover up all the gory details for you. etc etc. Then again, sometimes, it is simply personal. I don't think Dan or other mods will mind too too much if you snarl and gnash teeth at those induhviduals.

So I guess I could have added, in your request for help to not get locked out for flaming. Simply post things like "Try Search on the top banner button bar" or even "We don't do homework" but add a smiley. Or do what you did here and vent off to the side.

By the way, I have this game I want to write in Turing. Can you help me? I wanna get good marks.

Cheers

[Aziz]

btiffin @ Tue May 06, 2008 3:51 pm wrote:

By the way, I have this game I want to write in Turing. Can you help me? I wanna get good marks.

Cheers

Just be careful there. Joking or not, just hearing (I guess reading) those words can invoke the hidden (or not so hidden) animal in some of us. I guess you did use proper spelling and punctuation, though.

[Carey]

Yes. I can help you. I will not program a game for you though

Edit: Wow Aziz, that was fast and yes i know he was joking.

[Nick]

here's the perfect game

[btiffin]

What should I call it? It really really needs a good name. Something that will get me an A.

Oh, and gee, what should it do?

Sorry gang, getting giddy now

Cheers

[Carey]

i think you should call it "Pointless internet loop of infinity" or something of the like

[jinjin]

Carey @ Tue May 06, 2008 1:21 pm wrote:

It's that time of year again. When all the newbs sign up on this site and ask questions like "CAN U PLZ DO MY GAME 4 ME!!!!!!! IM A NEWB AND I HAVE A CULMINATING DUE AND I CANT DO IT HELP PLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????". Ahhhhhhhh....please help me from flaming them and getting kicked off this site. we need to have some sort of announcement that will tell them that no, we will not do thier culminating project for them and they can damn well do thier game by themselves. they have to learn that we will HELP them, not do thier project for them.


there. thats my rant, i feel a lot better now

does anyone support me or am i crazy?

Lol, I suppose I would be categorized in the bunch of people who are "NEWB" and have culminatings due as that is my exact situation at the moment. I'll admit, in the beginning, I was super noob and practically begged for solutions but I've learned my lesson and try avoiding that now. Thus, I believe that, from my own experience, if a one poster or a newcomer comes here and asks for help on a project, it would be best to help them to an extent that they could both be at least guided to the right path without completely offering the solution to them. This means avoiding complex programming lingo and citing specific parts of their code which could use some fixing. Also, if their code is horribly messy (like mine often is), some constructively criticizing comments are in order but simply flaming them for it or laughing at them accomplishes absolutely nothing. However, I believe that the compsci.ca does a good job of welcoming newcomers as, from the time I registered here, I have been treated with great respect and the only times I have seen others treated otherwise were isolated incidents of people intentionally trying to stir up conflict with posts in the same vein as your quote (i.e. "LOLZ HALP DO MEH PROJEKTS PL0X CUZ UR L33T LIKE M33T SO YEH"). In that case, flaming will occur through one way or another and the only possible thing one can do to help mediate the flames would be to post less disparaging comments, even though it would likely be near to impossible

Regards,
jinjin

[isaiahk9]

ha ha. im a bit of a noob but even i realize that you shouldn't ask for code or post a thread with the topic name "PLEEZ REELY NEED HELP N TURING!". And i do try to search topics before creating a new thread.
A second reason why I went onto this thread was to ask Carey where he got that animation for beside his name of the stick-man breaking down a wall. i stared at that clip for like 5 minutes. . .