Forgive me for my rant ahead of time but I need to.  This is my rant account   This board and the CI community as a whole are an outstanding group of people who prove day in and day out that true genius is marked by patience and understanding.

[RANT]
I am totally frustrated with the number of hobbyists who come onto the board seeking magical help.  They represent everything that is wrong with PHP scripting.  It is really unfortunate that PHP is so easy to setup and use as nearly anyone with a fist to bang on a keyboard can get started in a heart beat. Every day I witness post after post from posters seeking magical help.  The same that never think to do some research ahead of time.  The same that think the User Guide is just not “user friendly” enough.  I mean what was EllisLab thinking when they created a User Guide with no brain scanner that can parse your thoughts into code.

Its insane. 
You know the type of person I am talking about. 
The kind that grabbed a copy of xampp, installed it, downloaded a copy of CI and wondered where the msi was and then proceeded to post asking where the CI installer was located at so they could install it.

For F***s sake

Just today I read a post complaining about how hard ActiveRecord was to figure out because they are not familiar with SQL.  Are you kidding me?  Perhaps some research into SQL would help before using a basic form of SQL DB abstraction.

Don’t get me started on scaffolding.  I bet EllisLab regrets the day they added that.  Now we have people asking why scaffolding doesn’t make zebras into unicorns and other foolishness.  Its scaffolding not the end all.

There are those that should be commended for their patience and diligence in helping the monkeys who just fell from the trees.  You know who you are.  People like Mr. Wales who have the patience of saints.
[/RANT]

Thanks for listening.  If it pissed you off then you probably think the user guide needs a fairy dust sprayer.

I hate to admit it but… agreed.

A month or two ago there was the few random ones that you were happy to help but just in the past month there has been a massive influx and I think its starting to kill the community a bit as it was a great resource on even PHP in general but now is being taken advantage of.

doesn’t make zebras into unicorns and other foolishness

Again if they had read the user guide…

Sorry.. couldnt resist

I look at it as keeping connected with my roots. Sometimes basic things are the hardest to get right once you formed your opinion on what it does. But there are clever people here who jump on it and set the record straight.

I learned everything from tutorials, online documentation, forums, mailing lists and doing things myself.

I don’t know who i’m quoting but i remember a phrase like: in stupid people can grow the seed of knowledge and in smart people can grow the seed of stupidity. People who expect ready made solutions should pay a price like all the others who are not prepared to learn.

I think it’s the same in every community, and with every (new) technology. (I might be dating myself here, but have you ever been on USENET? You’ll know what I mean.)

There are those already familiar with it, and then there are newcomers. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a newbie in general, everybody started out at some point in their past. Of course we prefer the polite ones, the ones that ask an intelligent question, showing that they did their homework, or can use the forum search. In the best of all possible worlds, they will slowly become more experienced, observe and read a lot, even begin answering questions of other newbies, and will be assimilated by the community as times passes on. I suspect a relatively large number of users belong to that “polite” group, but they are a silent majority. It’s the loud, obnoxious, “I need urgent, perfect help, for free, right now, but can’t be bothered to read the manual” types that stick out the most and that we tend to remember.

Personally, I still consider “RTFM” to be an acceptable answer, but these days I usually just don’t bother to reply at all.

Perhaps a simple PHP test on the registration form would teach them… maybe something like:

Without executing, what does the following code produce?

answer: Array() - the use of $$name rather than ${$name} stops it from producing an array with post,post,post,post,post,get,get,get,get,get as its values.

OR PERHAPS
you might realise that we all started as noobs, we all grew from the patient help of others… occasionally we were set back by people saying “RTFM u freckn n00b lolz, I’ll uber HAX0rz u if u do dis agen”.

Yes, it would be wucking fonderful if they just read the user guide, or the 10 Billion PHP+MySQL tutorials on the net… or learnt PHP properly before trying to figure out the magic that is CI.

BUT just because they didn’t do this, doesn’t make their opinion any less valid than that of someone who already knows CI, and knows how to phrase their problem into a search box - next time you post a question, no matter how difficult or obscure, even if it has no answer in the User Guide or even the great lord Google… I’m gonna answer it with an “RTFM n00b”.

If you don’t want to help and be helped, then don’t go on a forum.

As a side note, a PHP brain scanner will look like this:

That’s right - PHP already has a function to get the brain’s current contents.. its only hampered by the fact that not everyone has plugged the USB peripheral directly into their jugular…

Your sql statement is not going to work is_about looks like a string function that does exist, why won’t you use php native functions, user functions are bad for the soul

is_about is made up

There is no built in is_about, nor is there a Human_thought class (extends Thought? Philosophy enters the discussion)

I suppose if we were to look at file_get_contents as a read function, then it would be best to rename user_get_brain_contents to brain_get_contents (is there, therefore, a brain_put_contents() or is that for PHP 7?)

php_penguin - 08 July 2008 03:29 AM

... you might realise that we all started as noobs, we all grew from the patient help of others… occasionally we were set back by people saying “RTFM u freckn n00b lolz, I’ll uber HAX0rz u if u do dis agen”.

I think I actually said as much, we all started out as beginners. Oh, and I don’t speak 1337 (voluntarily, at least).

BUT just because they didn’t do this, doesn’t make their opinion any less valid than that of someone who already knows CI ...

Their opinion? Of course not. But it’s still a question of attitude. Compare:

“Hi, I’ve got this problem ... I tried searching, but didn’t find anything, can somebody point my in the right direction? Thanks.”

with:

“I need a solution and working code to this problem ASAP…”

And don’t forget to bump your thread after an hour or so.

History already proove many time, that a community is coming with his pros and cons indeed.

I will not bash those who sa ’ i need this solution ASAP ’, because majority of time, they excuse themself later realy. We can call it impulsivity, or maybe indeed just a big miss of experience.

Those who never seem to see that as a problem usually don’t make long and go work somewhere, and we never hear anything about them after.

I suggest that we give importance to peace, i mean, we all here do the first effort i think, but still, god do his best you f*CK the rest.

Welcome to free open source world baby !

php_penguin - 08 July 2008 03:36 AM

As a side note, a PHP brain scanner will look like this:

$thoughts = user_get_brain_contents();
$valid = array();

foreach( $thoughts as $thought )
{
   if( is_about( $thought, 'php', true ) )
   {
       $valid []= "LIKE '%".$thought."%'";
   }
}

$results = mysql_query( 'SELECT * FROM `user_guide` WHERE `contents` ".implode( 'OR', $valid )."' );
$rows = array();

while( $row = mysql_fetch_object( $results ) )
{
   $rows[] = $row;
}

$this->load->view( 'brain_scan/results', array( 'results'=>$rows ) );

That’s right - PHP already has a function to get the brain’s current contents.. its only hampered by the fact that not everyone has plugged the USB peripheral directly into their jugular…

ME LIKEY CodeNighter for do stuff.

Sent from my Brain Scanner

[BRAIN SCAN]
ñ}ß÷Þ~Ò®4+Íü½ÿüƒ0BÈŒÎEZ6{~Së‚•½M}óS8:ë¤u
[/BRAIN SCAN]

Sorry, I’ll have to reply manually.  The dog chewed through the USB cable for my brain scanner.

I’ve actually gotten quite a bit of help from the forum.  As a fairly new CI user, I have found this forum to be extremely useful.  I just haven’t had to post asking questions, and anyone with a search button and the brain scanner can find whatever they are looking for, at least as far as the newbie questions go.

I recently (within the last year) got into PHP coding myself as a newcomer.  However, I have been using computer programming languages for over 30 years, and picking up and learning PHP wasn’t difficult at all.  I didn’t come to a forum to learn.  I read a book first, and did some programming myself to see how it worked before I started bothering people.

So, yes, people who ask for magical answers should read a manual first.  The problem is that kids nowadays want everything granted instantly.  Pizza delivered in 30 minutes, instant coffee, microwaves, instant emails… our society has bred an impatient culture that wants everything 5 minutes ago.  Newbies sign up on a forum and expect it to be a “live chat room.”  Go find a live chat room, then.  This ain’t it.

[brain_scan]
*drool*
[/brain_scan]

The User Guide for CodeIgniter was the easiest piece of information I’ve ever had to read.

It’s the only reason I’ve started with and stuck with CodeIgniter for my hobby projects.

Yes, PHP is easy to setup. PHP is also easy to learn.

Problem is, the majority of today’s generation (makes me feel old and I’m not even 30 yet!) feel like they shouldn’t have to research it. The answer should be handed to them on a silver platter. 15 or 20 minutes before they even realized a problem existed.

*shrug*

just a quick note, I’m 19 and I don’t think that everything needs to be here 5 minutes ago, nor do i shy from researching a problem.

Maybe I’m an exception to the rule, or maybe your opinion of the current generation is incorrect…

I think the critical word used above is majority and I would almost agree to this but I think its best put as there are lesser people like this then there was say 10 years ago.

Im only 25 myself and I find it to be a good age where I am able to see and understand the perspective of the older generation and the younger generation as well.

I think it’s probably a person to person thing.  I’m 24 and have no qualms about digging in to Google, the forums, and the user guide to do some research.  Other people don’t have that kind of patience.  Just a different mentality I guess.