Its never the individual. Its just in aggregate, that this becomes an issue - and even then some side with "hey, lets always help everyone out the best that we can". Its just that when you wade through that for 1000s of times, and I kid you not - not in this scene, but in aggregate, that you start to look at this differently. So this is literally one of the forums, where people come together to read up on information first hand. If in here the "Hey guys..!" threads get overhand, it becomes an issue, where you are literally trying to ignore help requests, just to get to the information. Its different usage profiles at this point.
I chose to make this a public discussion piece a few months ago - and the first feedback I've gotten is "you cant change it, give up, simply ignore it..." and all in all - in mass those voices were right, you will always have the folks who see this as their personal support resource, and just have a quick question for all the guys around.
In the end, we all start to ignore it. Even I'm getting better at it.
But this then culminates, in having mostly people respond that maybe are new to this as well, and dont understand concepts in full, and at that point you have wrong information spreading, so - then we are asking ourselves the question, are we giving up, are we reacting now...
So its not an easy situation. And its never the individual. Hey - If youd know me in person, Id probably try more to help you out. But it just doesnt scale correctly.
I sometimes compare it to reading a newspaper and having every fifth article at times being "Hey friend, can you help a bro out?". Or getting together with your pals at a model cars club (I never did, btw.
), and having Joe Shmoe walking in from the streets, trying to probe you on what they should buy for their kid. And that five times a day. So there has to be some sort of response. And if it hit you, I feel for you.
The entry level into all of this isnt so high, that its unsurmountable. You'll get it.
Also believe us, those of us who grew up with "computers" in the nineties banged our head against issues constantly, for days. Also with only the internet as a resource to help us in some situations. And then we solved it. Eventually. With a little help, sometimes, sure. But the I need a quick service attitude was far less common, than it is nowadays. So culture changed a little as well, and thats what some of us (me) are really grappling with.
On the other hand, the scenes became much more approachable for most people - so thats something positive as well.
