Alien_Hunter wrote:
I guess you're saying that you don't feel that your knowledge is appreciated. You should know however that somebody will read your comments and may be able to utilize that information, whether they say "thank you" or do not reply at all. I always try to thank people for information given on a subject I am researching.
Being "Old Guard" is not helping anyone if you don't share what you've learned. I am always willing to share whatever tidbits of knowledge I have with anyone. Yes, you can expect that a lot of ignorant people will post ignorant questions, but there's never been a time when there weren't such people online anyways. So back to being "Old Guard", just relax and know that somebody's going to learn from what you say. n00bs will be n00bs and there will always be n00bs. Everybody has been a n00b at one point. It's the people that learn and change that become pros. It is possible to be an "Old Guard" n00b too, somebody that just never learned to shut up when others are speaking and deliberately turn off their listening ears when somebody (for better or worse) is trying to teach them something.
This goes back to why the people on Facebook forums suck 50% of the time. Nobody actually learns anything. There is usually a flame war, somebody saying they're going to clean their with WD40, etc, etc. AP is a place where people should feel comfortable asking questions and not getting catty remarks. Memes, lazy posts, making fun of bad spelling and bad grammar doesn't help anyone.
Caution: Tunnel ahead, Light on for safety! *Hampster would be pleased, I think.* *edit aww, I had to remove the quote tunnel.*
It's not that my knowledge is going unappreciated or even that I don't share it when I can - better to help someone when I can rather than not, better for everyone in the end, and I don't expect a thank you =p - but with regards to Facebook in particular, it seems like there's always some jackass who has actively decided to be the Anti-knowledge. Sometimes in the form of misinformation and ill-informed opinion, and frequently in the form of a knowledge vacuum, simply there to cause problems for their own entertainment.
I bring my own share of 'noobs' into the community and your completely right in the 'everyone has to start somewhere' - not knowing what your doing or how to do it isn't a crime - it's being willfully ignorant (in it's many forms) that is the problem when most people are talking about the derogatory
No0bz. I don't like the word noob, btw. Too many meanings, most of which are not friendly.
If you look through the AP forums, you'll find plenty of examples of the community pouncing on no0bz - but even in the bulk of those threads, there are still at least some attempts made to help the guy before the blood hit the water. This holds true on most of the other forums I use regularly too, to varying degrees. People seem to want to help, with the backlash against the hoodlums only really being regulated by the various forum rules.
My experience with Facebook groups has been almost universally the opposite. It feels like those people aren't there to be constructive, but happen to do it on accident sometimes.
Matt will tell you - I'm the constant noob.
The reason I got that title, and what it means to me now are completely different things. I wear it with pride because, even though originally it was a jab at how I kept cycling my equipment and starting over - to me now, it means that I've always got something to learn, to improve. That's a good thing.
What I meant by old guard - along with being in the community for quite a while - was that I have a low tolerance for the foolish among us. Those willfully ignorant troublemakers that seem to thrive on causing problems for others. Facebook seems to be the breeding ground for them. Which, again, I attribute to the ease at which a random person can just drop in and out of those communities on Facebook. Not like we're a gated compound here either, but the difference is the scope of the usership. We're all here in the forums for a specific thing - Facebook is not at all limited in it's scope. The smidgen of effort it takes to join a forum like this, compared to just 'liking' a Facebook group seems to stop a lot of the bad behaviors, simply because it's not as easy. *And the moderator tools available help a good bit too Facebook, as Matt said, is lacking in that area aswell*
So... uh.. TL|DR I guess is, I feel like forums Like AP, URC, Etc. are dedicated to a specific topic, where as Facebook is an open-world free-for-all. That means the dedicated topic of the community also plays a part in the way it's members behave, versus Facebook allowing pretty much anyone, anywhere to drop in anytime - even when their only goal is to poke the bear.
With all the pretty flowers and twigs in your ghillie.. perhaps you should take up gardening?
