As with any of my posts, I always hope to hear criticism that will better me. I guess I what bothered me about this particular person was that he tried a couple of resources, and then threw his hands up. Then he figured: "Hey, I'll ask the monks why this script I downloaded doesn't work." During the conversation, I kept pointing out things that he should be doing and he replied to me something to the effect of "I'm trying to get help and you're giving me the tenth degree."

I've always thought that downloading something you don't really know how to use is usually frowned upon. That doesn't mean to say that you can't learn how to use it. You have to download Perl and write/test code before you can actually learn it.

I remember one time in a CB chat, virtualsue was asking about getting a remote server to send content to an authenticated client. While it wasn't necessarily Perl related, it was a rather interesting topic. After some idea tossing, we finally figured out a solution. I thought it was cool (read: kickass) that I had helped solve a problem.

I really wish I had a log of the CB chat that I was referring to in the rant. I guess my anger was because I see that kind of talk in #perl and watch people get banned. That's, of course, not to say we should start banning people from PM because of OT CB talk... Boy, would that be stupid.

Whenever I had a problem with a piece of code I've written, I used to think to myself: "Go to Perlmonks and ask!" After a while, I realized that it was stupid to just go to Perlmonks every time something went wrong. After having gained a lot of experience with Perl over the past year, I can now actually look my code over and fix something like 60% of my problems without even asking anyone for help. That's not to say I'm perfect, because, by all means, I'm not. I'm just saying that I try to understand what's going on before I jump up and ask for help. Having just a little bit of insight into one problem helps you to solve other problems later, right?

In the end, I guess I'm just angry that it seemed inappropriate for this particular user to be asking "Why doesn't this script I downloaded not work" when he didn't really even know what he was dealing with (of course he knew what the end result SHOULD be, but it never hurts to crawl around inside the source and see what's going on). I've always believed that someone should understand at least 25% of what's going on when they download a program. That 25% includes knowing the background of the program (features, bugs, etc.), possibly some of the code behind it (especially if it's open-source code... e.g. Perl/Python), and the places to search for help should something go wrong (can someone say Google?).

Hmmm... I wonder if that's a far-out idea or not... Probably is...

Lastly, I'd like to point out that most of the completely OT stuff in the CB (question-wise) usually comes up in a very casual manner. Example:

monk1: Hmmmm... I wonder why this NIC isn't working
monk2: What's going on monk1?
...
...
...
some solution reached or monk1 is pointed to a list of resources that may be helpful.

I don't see anything wrong with this... I sure hope someone agrees with that... It just bothered me that the person asked the I-downloaded-this-script-and-it-doesn't-work question. Like crazyinsomniac pointed out, I guess I was assuming the same standards (for the most part) that apply to SoPW apply to the CB. Bad assumption by me. But I'm glad that somebody made it clear for me (and yes I did read the CB FAQ. I just never figured anyone would say something THAT OT.).

Thanks again for the slice of humble pie. It's mighty delicious and educating.

Theodore Charles III
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