When to stop using Gimp?

[Ofnuts]

(04-21-2021, 01:33 PM)rickk Wrote: I just figure that it's this way because the people who own the forum prefer it this way, for reasons that are their own.

Well, it's is mostly because the forum software we picked worked that way

(04-21-2021, 01:33 PM)rickk Wrote: I'm just thankful that this place isn't like a lot of the Linux "help" forums, where the answer to every question you ask starts with "I'd sincerely like to help you, but since you are obviously too ignorant to even ask the right question, I'm sure I'm just wasting my time"

Yes, on Windows forums you get uninformed answers, and on Linux forums you don't get informed answers.

It's the bane of all question/answers sites: while crafting a good question, you will likely find the answers by yourself and eventually never ask the question. So the questions asked are mostly the bad ones...

[rickk]

(04-21-2021, 09:15 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: It's the bane of all question/answers sites: while crafting a good  question, you will likely find the answers by yourself and eventually never ask the question. So the questions asked are mostly the bad ones...

Well, since this is "the water cooler", I'll expand on observed conditions a bit.

I've NEVER been a big fan of Microsoft, for a multitude of reasons.  But when IBM pulled the plug on OS/2, it left me feeling kind of exposed.  I propped up OS/2 for several years after it was dead, and played around with SUSE as a hoped for destination.

Microsoft finally had their "even a broken clock is correct twice per day" moment with Windows 7, and since it was already on a laptop I bought, I used it long enough to get used to it... It met my needs.

Don't like Windows 10, so that pushed me back to Linux about a year ago.

And in the past year visiting Linux forums have sincerely wondered what it is about Linux that attracts all the misanthropes.  It often seems as though  the strong thrive on preying upon the weak at the "help" forums. Between the people who just seem to think up the rudest, most self aggrandizing way they can possibly respond to people,  or the  dozens of self-amused buffoons who troll new help requests insisting the solution  to every problem  is "Type man into any terminal"....I'm frankly surprised that there is any retained growth in the user base.

I sincerely have started to think that most Linux help forms aren't about providing help to those who need it, nearly so much as they are just a d*ck measuring contest for a bunch of greybeards  preoccupied with patting each each other on the back over their accomplishments.   "king of the hill" seems a likely motive among some of them.  

[Ofnuts]

Well,my first foray in the Linux world was in 2001 (Mandrake Traktopel IIRC) (also to replace OS/2, by the way) and there were not that many forums (and online time was expensive) so I got by on my own with Linux user magazines and the like. In 2010 I switched my work computer to Ubuntu and went for help on the Ubuntu forums (ubuntuforums.org). Not the very congenial bunch (a bit like here) but I never got the cold shoulder either. I also ask questions (and get answers) on kubuntuforum.net.

As to StackOverflow, Unix&Linux, ServerFault, SuperUser, AskUbuntu I have got 51K cumulated karma points so my experience maybe better that other people's, but on the whole if you ask a decent question, the worst that happens is that no-one answers. Of course from their origins these sites are geared towards the pros or at least the reasonably knowledgeable users but SuperUser and AskUbuntu are reasonably beginner-friendly. It is true that many questions get closed as duplicates, but they are closed with pointers to likely answers. And if the OP shows that s/he has already seen these other answers and that s/he thinks the question is a bit different s/he will get the answers for that specific case. And frustration runs both ways, you can go out of your way to provide a good answer and it is never acknowledged by the one who asked (I even had the case of someone who removed the "bounty" after I answered).

[rickk]

(04-22-2021, 09:16 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: Not the very congenial bunch (a bit like here:)) 

Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding, I think you folks are great, and nothing like the people I referenced in my previous post.

And I'm sure that it does get monotonous having person after person asking "Does anybody have a recipe for mud?" So I understand where impatience can sometimes come from.

But, the nature of the abuse I described earlier. at these other places,... Well not to rail incessantly, I'll just say it at times appears as though the "authority" is enjoying the brow beating, just a little too much. Almost like feeding time at the zoo when a n00b shows up.

Personally I've been relatively fortunate, but frequently I've seen others get pretty beat up, and just being honest, seeing the way they were treated made me highly reluctant to ask questions, not wanting to be the next head in the barrel.

It kind of boils down to this: If Linux Guru spends the greater share of his time going around the forum and cautioning new comers that he hasn't got time for questions beneath his level of expertise, then why is it he's got time to go around looking for people to browbeat? Why can't he just leave the 101 level questions for others to handle, and devote his elite skills where they do the most good? I think the red text above fairly well captures the essence.

And just to assure context, no It doesn't make me feel "injured", or whatever...back as I said in my previous post, it just seems contra-productive to "growing the brand".

Over the years I've heard a lot of hypothetical questions that at their root boil down to "what will it take for Linux to supplant Windows?"   And agents acting as described above, I don't think are gaining much ground for that cause.

Who knows? Perhaps their own come uppance was a rocky one, and they see it as a rite of passage they must pass on...lol!

[rickk]

Part of it too might be an inherent flaw in the opensource model? Without the economic bridle attached from the top of the acropolis, as might be the case with a Microsoft, or IBM, it's a little more difficult to rein-in the renegades and crackpots who are more interested in self promotion than evangelizing.