Interesting Article on the demise of StackOverflow as being useful for beginners
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https://medium.com/@johnslegers/the-decline-of-stack-overflow-7cb69faa575d#.w2e4w8u93[^] I am still reading it myself but can certainly attest that the new user experience over there is more like working at the United States Postal office or the Department of Motor Vehicles.
I both like and dislike stack exchange. I think the community is to harsh. Nowadays I might be to blame but when I got a small problem that I'm having trouble to explain or just need some quick answers/directions I use stack exchange. Just to have a baited hook in the sea. But I do try to explain my current question as detailed as possible as well as what research I've done. If it's something bigger where I also have a greater chance of bettering myself I use CP. Mainly because of the community.
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Super Lloyd wrote:
All hail CodeProject for doing an excellent work so far! :-D
So far. But I do see it slipping. Years ago CP was a very good place to both ask and answer questions. Though lately, especially in the Q&A section it is not so anymore. At least not for me. If someone asks a question about 'A' then answer the question about 'A', do not tell them that 'A' is the wrong approach and they had better use 'B' instead. I also see beginner questions being down voted, probably for being too simple. We all started knowing nothing and we learn by asking. Most times beginners just need a point in the right direction, and Google is not the direction they need. I also find that the more difficult or obscure questions do not get answered. The powers that be at CP had better be careful of this or soon CP will go the same way as SO.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
PJ Arends wrote:
If someone asks a question about 'A' then answer the question about 'A', do not tell them that 'A' is the wrong approach and they had better use 'B' instead.
I see your point. However, it's also a good idea for them to point out how to do B if B indeed is a better approach.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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https://medium.com/@johnslegers/the-decline-of-stack-overflow-7cb69faa575d#.w2e4w8u93[^] I am still reading it myself but can certainly attest that the new user experience over there is more like working at the United States Postal office or the Department of Motor Vehicles.
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A lot of the "beginner" questions that get down-voted earn it because the person isn't really asking a question. You get stuff like a post of a homework assignment. No question, just the homework assignment, like they want you to do their work for them and just hand them the code. You get stuff like, "how do I fix the error in this code?" and then they don't supply the error message, the line it throws on or post a huge code snippet and expect you to hunt through the code to find any and all problems. How about opposite? "I got this error message ... How do I fix it?" and don't show the code at all. Well, you might want to start with showing us the code that threw it! Stuff like "How do I use this library?" and give you some name of a library nobody has ever heard of. No other questions or specifics about what they're doing or any problem they're having. After 10+ years around here we have noticed the quality of questions going down hill. It's not so much a technical, "beginner" problems that get down-voted. It's usually the OP's lack of communications skills in merely asking the question, such as the ability to provide a context or even has some comprehension of "what would someone need to know about this problem to help me solve it?" Asking a question is a skill. With the passage of time, it seems that this is becoming a lost art instead of a basic educational necessity.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject
Click this: Asking questions is a skill. Seriously, do it.
Dave KreskowiakSo far I feel I have been well received here with my questions and some may have not been the best or clearest but from my experience I've been well rewarded when trying to improve the question and get a small discussion going. Maybe not the best way to work with QA but I think that having a good spirit around this sort of thing helps a lot. Even my more diffuse questions that doesn't contain specific technicalities as netted me worthwhile information allowing me to progress with solving my problems. Maybe one problem is that a lot of questions are better suited in a discussion forum or rather in a chat where the poster might then find that they asked about the wrong thing. Maybe a multilayered QA site could solve this. A way to have QA, forum and chat semi integrated. A chat with short-lived topics which wither can evolve in to topics for discussion or distilled into a question more fitting QA. Sometimes you see questions at stack overflow which gets edited by both contributors and poster as the question evolves as the poster or someone else realizes that another question is more fitting, and that when answered will actually solve the original problem. Just trying to express this I feel my communication skills lacking and I'm unsure if I manage to express what I want said. In QA places this is usually compounded by multiple people on different levels when it comes to language and communication skills as well as technical skills.
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https://medium.com/@johnslegers/the-decline-of-stack-overflow-7cb69faa575d#.w2e4w8u93[^] I am still reading it myself but can certainly attest that the new user experience over there is more like working at the United States Postal office or the Department of Motor Vehicles.
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Super Lloyd wrote:
All hail CodeProject for doing an excellent work so far! :-D
So far. But I do see it slipping. Years ago CP was a very good place to both ask and answer questions. Though lately, especially in the Q&A section it is not so anymore. At least not for me. If someone asks a question about 'A' then answer the question about 'A', do not tell them that 'A' is the wrong approach and they had better use 'B' instead. I also see beginner questions being down voted, probably for being too simple. We all started knowing nothing and we learn by asking. Most times beginners just need a point in the right direction, and Google is not the direction they need. I also find that the more difficult or obscure questions do not get answered. The powers that be at CP had better be careful of this or soon CP will go the same way as SO.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
PJ Arends wrote:
Years ago CP was a very good place to both ask and answer questions.
I don't think CP was ever a very good Q&A community. It's the articles that make it a great place. Years ago, there were also good technology-related discussions in the Lounge, but that's gone.
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A lot of the "beginner" questions that get down-voted earn it because the person isn't really asking a question. You get stuff like a post of a homework assignment. No question, just the homework assignment, like they want you to do their work for them and just hand them the code. You get stuff like, "how do I fix the error in this code?" and then they don't supply the error message, the line it throws on or post a huge code snippet and expect you to hunt through the code to find any and all problems. How about opposite? "I got this error message ... How do I fix it?" and don't show the code at all. Well, you might want to start with showing us the code that threw it! Stuff like "How do I use this library?" and give you some name of a library nobody has ever heard of. No other questions or specifics about what they're doing or any problem they're having. After 10+ years around here we have noticed the quality of questions going down hill. It's not so much a technical, "beginner" problems that get down-voted. It's usually the OP's lack of communications skills in merely asking the question, such as the ability to provide a context or even has some comprehension of "what would someone need to know about this problem to help me solve it?" Asking a question is a skill. With the passage of time, it seems that this is becoming a lost art instead of a basic educational necessity.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject
Click this: Asking questions is a skill. Seriously, do it.
Dave KreskowiakDave Kreskowiak wrote:
How about opposite? "I got this error message ... How do I fix it?" and don't show the code at all. Well, you might want to start with showing us the code that threw it!
I think this one can be a matter of wording for a lot of people. There are times where I'm simply looking for what an error code means, and what could usually cause it. Kinda like when I first ran into "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error, I was beginning and had NO IDEA what this even meant. I asked how to fix it, and I was given the fix without even being told what the error was. Lately, if I have an error code question, I just ask what might throw the error code, so I can learn to fix it on my own.
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To which the answer is obviously 42.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
How about opposite? "I got this error message ... How do I fix it?" and don't show the code at all. Well, you might want to start with showing us the code that threw it!
I think this one can be a matter of wording for a lot of people. There are times where I'm simply looking for what an error code means, and what could usually cause it. Kinda like when I first ran into "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error, I was beginning and had NO IDEA what this even meant. I asked how to fix it, and I was given the fix without even being told what the error was. Lately, if I have an error code question, I just ask what might throw the error code, so I can learn to fix it on my own.
No, not really. I've seen too many of these where they don't tell you what the error is or they post the error message and a code dump. That's it, nothing else. You have to guess where the error is being thrown from and they usually want their code fixed for them. What you said is an exception.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject
Click this: Asking questions is a skill. Seriously, do it.
Dave Kreskowiak -
PythonHeadBanger wrote:
I happen to be pretty hard nosed, and thick skinned. Technically an adult. I've already written my program in VBA and am learning Python. 1v1 me bro.
Laughs. Thanks for that, here catch a vote. (1v1 me bro.) Syntactical white-space should be against the geneva convention, I gave up on python a decade ago, for this and other reasons. The fact that its the scripting language of Blender is the only reason I ever bothered with it. NumPy is quite nice, but not quite enough to make it worthwhile for me. Pick a time and a place my friend. I taught myself Turbo Pascal while in detention in high-school and moved on to x86 assembly from there. In uni, people asked me more questions than the lecturer in programming class. Your turn! ;P
#HeadBangerWREKT I will look into Blender as that seems like some pretty cool stuff. Thanks for the heads up.
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#HeadBangerWREKT I will look into Blender as that seems like some pretty cool stuff. Thanks for the heads up.
I always love a good-sport. :-D :thumbsup: Yeah, Blender was pretty damn good when I used it last, at around version 2.49 or so. Around the time that the interface changed for v 2.50, I no longer needed it for day-day work, it's well worth the buy-in price ($0)
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No, not really. I've seen too many of these where they don't tell you what the error is or they post the error message and a code dump. That's it, nothing else. You have to guess where the error is being thrown from and they usually want their code fixed for them. What you said is an exception.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject
Click this: Asking questions is a skill. Seriously, do it.
Dave Kreskowiak
