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Re: Take it easy on --

by dsb (Chaplain)
on May 06, 2002 at 15:27 UTC ( [id://164353]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Take it easy on --

While curiosity and interest are good qualities in a programmer, so are thinking out of the box, an ability to do research, and resourcefulness.

I think that its important for people to learn how to ask questions. If posted a node everytime I had some basic question I'd have upwards of 500 write-ups by now. However, one of the first things I learned here is to try to answer my own questions before asking others to give me answers. Being able to find my own answers has helped to better understand the way Perl works. Now if someone is only interested in having answers spoon-fed to them so they can finish they're homework/project, there's plenty of other places they can go.

If downvoting a question, even those that are well-intentioned, will help a new/Anonymous Monk learn how to ask an educated question, then so be it.

Besides, learning the hard way tends to make the lesson sink further in. At least with me it does ;0).




Amel
This is my cool %SIG

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Re(2): Take it easy on --
by FoxtrotUniform (Prior) on May 06, 2002 at 16:59 UTC
      If downvoting a question, even those that are well-intentioned, will help a new/Anonymous Monk learn how to ask an educated question, then so be it.

    I am very skeptical that downvoting a "newbie" question will help its poster learn to ask questions well. A terse response, with an admonishment to RTFM or STFW (and perhaps pointers to the appropriate parts of the FM or FW), gives the questioner an idea of what they did wrong (failed to research their question) and how to fix it (research their question next time). A link to an appropriate node, or perhaps to this essay, is even better, but more work. (Ideally, every monk would put all reasonable effort into educating the novitiate, but let's face it: we don't have time. Sometimes, RTFM is all we have time for.)

    A lone downvote carries inadequate information: it says that "someone doesn't like your node", without saying why. That makes it difficult feedback to learn from (can you tell that I've an interest in machine learning? :-), and the unfortunate novice who posts a stupid naive or frequently asked question, only to see it downvoted into oblivion, is more likely to leave in disgust than recognize and correct their error.

    So let's not pretend that we're doing someone a favour by summarily downvoting their redundant nodes, okay?

    --
    :wq

      Your "this essay" link seems to redirect to one of a seemingly random series of websites (which I don't think was your intent). Apparently, whatever essay you originally intended no longer exists.

      By the way, I agree with the sentiment of this node: more information is better.

      - apotheon
      CopyWrite Chad Perrin
        Your "this essay" link seems to redirect to one of a seemingly random series of websites (which I don't think was your intent). Apparently, whatever essay you originally intended no longer exists.

        Yeah, esr's domain morphed. I'll fix it.

        --
        Yours in pedantry,
        F o x t r o t U n i f o r m

        "Lines of code don't matter as long as I'm not writing them." -- merlyn

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