Rant: I am just a newbie

[jmcilhinney]

I enjoy it :] seriously, it brings me pleasure to know that I've helped someone. Wether being payed or not. I just think that saying I'm just a newbie is A)Unecessary and B)An attempt to avoid responsibility.

I think that we all enjoy it, otherwise we wouldn't be here. What some of don't enjoy is being taken advantage of, either wilfully or not. Along with those who do what they can to help themselves, there are those who know that they should but decide why bother if they can get away without it and there are also those who just don't think. A great many times I've prompted someone to look for themselves and they've found the solution for themselves, so they assumed that it would be too difficult and didn't even think to try first. I think that "I'm a newbie" gets used in two ways:

1. When people know that they should do more but are too lazy too so they try to appear as innocuous as possible in the hope that we'll take pity on them and do their work for them.
2. As a justification to themselves to convince them that their problem is too hard and it would be a waste of time to even try to solve it for themselves.

If people really have done all they can for themselves before posting a question then all they have to do is say so. If they say "I've tried A, B and C and this is what happened" then I won't hassle them at all. Too many people assume that we will know what's in their head.