Basic questions aren't the problem. "What is a hash?" is a very basic question, one I have no problem answering because you could read the docs ten times, and until you make that conceptual hop, you aren't going to grok hashes.

The basic nature of some questions mask fundamental ignorance and/or discourtesy many find so annoying. Instead of wondering whether basic questions are bad, we should discourage bad questions in general. Here are some phenotypes that appear to be too basic, but are bad for other reasons:

"This script doesn't work when the input is 6. Why?"
Beats me. Make the effort to describe your script, your problem, and what you have tried, or dial Psychic Friends next time.

"Help me, dammit!"
The people here provide help as a courtesy. They are under no obligation to help you, doubly so if you are rude.

"URGENT! URGENT! URGENT HELP NEEDED!"
I will be glad to provide you Perl support on demand. Let me know where to fax my fee schedule. Otherwise, if you are expecting professional services for free, you business model is fundamentally flawed.

"I need a program to download satellite telemetry data into a web acessible proprietary database. Please write it."
see above

"I have this CGI script with Javascript that uses this C program to run some SQL to load to a mySQL database, and..."
Figure out which technology is failing you. If it is Perl, let us know.

"I don't care about Perl, I just want this to program work."
Well, we do care about Perl, and the purpose of forums like this is to foment community and advocate its use. Friendly help is a happy side effect. Free tech support is not. If you wish results without illumination, you should hire a real Perl programmer, and consider a career in middle management.

In reply to Too basic isn't the issue... by indigo
in thread Are there questions to basic? by OzzyOsbourne

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