BIG Idea for Kirupa Upgrade

21

The idea you’re talking about has already been done and it’s called Experts Exchange.
You might be able to slice it down into smaller markets (ie: FlashHelpExchange.org, HTMLHelpExchange.org) or something like that.
I don’t know, you’d be better off designing this site and coding all the backend to it, then advertising here.
FlashDen did something like that and it took off. This might.

Regardless, I’m too poor/not stupid enough yet to pay for help. That’s why I look for an answer, when I can’t find one, ask a question, then go back to studying. Every little bit of knowledge will help me eventually. :slight_smile:

22

I don’t know about all of the forums, but I know that in the CS3 / AS3 sections, almost all questions get answered. If you’re posing questions in there and they’re getting ignored, it’s probably your fault for bad formatting, an unclear request, asking for too much work, bad grammar, etc…

I’ve never seen a question that was “too hard” for our fine members - just questions that were too broad, too boring, too much work, etc. You’re not going to have good luck if you’re like:

:hang:

23

I love that smiley…

[quote=Anogar;2356336]I don’t know about all of the forums, but I know that in the CS3 / AS3 sections, almost all questions get answered. If you’re posing questions in there and they’re getting ignored, it’s probably your fault for bad formatting, an unclear request, asking for too much work, bad grammar, etc…

I’ve never seen a question that was “too hard” for our fine members - just questions that were too broad, too boring, too much work, etc. You’re not going to have good luck if you’re like:

:hang:[/quote]

24

[ot] I got a big idea for a Kirupa Upgrade! Why not let us incorperate our Gamercards on our profiles underneath our name and pic?[/ot]

25

Post now, representatives are standing by to answer your threads! Do not delay!

The majority of questions contained on most online forums can be resolved with the use of one or more the following methods. Why because 9/10 the question has been asked numerous times already around the internet by others already. So…

1.) Try to find an answer by searching the archives of the forum. – Kirupa Forum Search
2.) Try to find an answer by searching the Web. – Google etc…
3.) Try to find an answer by reading the manual. – Flash LiveDocs - Flash MX2004, [URL=“http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/8/”]Flash 8, [URL=“http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/”]Flash CS3

Aside from people not doing their own research for an answer before posting, posting inadequate questions also plays a enormous role in not getting your questions answered. (some good points by Anogar - Post 22) (a great overview by McGuffin [URL=“http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2356827&postcount=33”]Post 33)

As many have mentioned this and most forums are based on voluntary membership (meaning people are here because they want to be, not because they have to be). Since it is voluntary, that means interaction and involvement within the community are voluntary also. Members asking questions might need answers due to many factors but other members are under no obligation to answer others posts. However as members, we should all try to help and assist others as our time and knowledge allows. Of course even the basic desire to assist can also vary from time to time for many reasons by each of us. It was already mentioned but time-zones play a key role as well. This forum like most forums includes many members from around the world, so members online at any given point can fluctuate greatly. Likewise you have the age factor. Although age has nothing to do with actual knowledge, age does play a role as well. Younger members might be more present online during the school year yet not as much duing summer months. While older professional and working members might be available as their work, family and general life schedules allow. Many factors come into play when dealing with the number of members that are available on the forums. But even if someone is available they are under their own discretion to participate and may choose to do so, or not do so, for numerous reasons.

I have found the following links to be great resources concerning Q|A in general:

How to get answers to your scripting questions (great read)

How to NOT get help (great read)

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way (General overall concepts, very detailed)

:2c: :thumb:

26

You could always ask for the money you used to sign up back.

27

for me the point of forums like this one is not for you to pay someone to do your work for you - it’s more for people to brainstorm over weird problems together, or more experienced people to nudge you in the right direction when you get stuck on your own. in essence, you’re looking for advice and a fresh approach to something you’ve been struggling with - not a full-fledged solution. and once you pick up some handy ideas you go back to the old drawing board and see if you can make them work.

I guess if I was going to spend money instead of time and effort I’d just pay people to do coding/ design whatever for me… :smiley:

28

I think it just boils down to the fact that this is not a service, it’s a community.

29

dan has a good idea really…I think thats the best thing for you to do, I am sure people will be willing to help for money and then you can demand help…I would do that…

30

you couldnt be more right, we all love eachother, and thats why people help, not for the money

31

Pleh if it wasn’t for people answering my stupid questions here when when I first started flash I probably would have quit flash a long time ago :stuck_out_tongue:

32

you couldn’t be more right, we all love each other, and thats why people help, not for the money

…Yeah, I’m sure that may be the case for the “popular kids”: Those “recognised” members and others using the latest versions of Flash. However, it looks like the majority of us “noobs” and those using older versions of Flash (Ie: Posting questions in older Forums) are the ugly girls at the school formal, who sit in the corner and never get picked to dance. Lol…Thought I’d be a bit creative with that one. :wink:

Anyway, I’ve already checked out “Experts Exchange” and thats looks like an awesome way to go! I’ve also set up a profile on “Flash Advisor” and am currently getting GREAT help from a Mod called “The_A”. Finally, somebody wants to help me! Woohoo! :party:

33

Why wouldn’t people be more inclined to help people who have been around for longer? For one, they won’t throw a fit when the first person who helps them is unable to solve their problems. And there’s a list of other issues that just make it easier to help those people out.

The problem with posters like you is that there is an expectation that the problem will be solved by someone other than yourself. For example, your custom scrollbar graphics question. Someone posted a tutorial that you could go through, rip the code out, place it in your file and take out what isn’t needed. Instead, you say thanks but no thanks, post up your file, and expect someone else to figure it out for you. There’s often no effort made to say “here’s what I’ve tried, and here’s the part where my code is falling on it’s ***”, instead it’s posted as some large, broad problem that will take a decent amount of time to solve. We’re not feature creators, we’re problem solvers. Try writing your code, and posting exactly where it’s failing.

Instead of when encountering your problem, posting them on Kirupa or ExpertsExchange, google search and search this site for tutorials and past threads because I guarantee unless you’re doing majorly advanced stuff, someone else has had a similar issue to you. You’ll save yourself money by not going to ExpertsExchange and you’ll learn a lot in the process by solving your own problems.

I have no idea where your sense of entitlement comes from. Is there a reason why I should come on the forums after 8-10 hours of working in Flash and spend another hour helping people who seemingly won’t do anything to help themselves? I try my best to help the odd person, but at the end of the day I come here to read what the chat is about and try and help some people along the way, not ensure that I have less of a life and more headaches than I already have. If you make it easy for people to answer, they will.

34

Just for the record, 90% of all threads that I’ve started asking for help don’t get answered, and I’m a mod … so it clearly has nothing to do w/ “popularity”.

I’d hope you’re getting “awesome help” from someone at Expert Exchange, that’s what you’re paying for.

35

Sorry Colin, but your really starting to pi** me off!

For example, your custom scrollbar graphics question. Someone posted a tutorial that you could go through, rip the code out, place it in your file and take out what isn’t needed. Instead, you say thanks but no thanks, post up your file, and expect someone else to figure it out for you.

For starters, that tutorial was 9 PAGES LONG!!! From my very limited experience, 2 Up/Down Arrows to control a scrollable MC require a quarter of the code a scrollbar does. Hence, the link I posted to the original tutorial I tried to follow…only 1 page long! I find it mission impossible to “disect” or decipher 1 line of code, let alone 9 PAGES of it!! I’m a born Graphic Designer trying to learn about Coding, not vica-versa. In my opinion, these 2 are like ‘Chalk and Cheese’. Your brain is either programmed for it or it’s not. Your either have a natural gift for it or you don’t! Not everyone is as gifted as you Colin. After all, what do you think I’m doing here??

Secondly, the reason I didn’t post a detailed explanation of my problem, was because I assumed that people weren’t answering me because I was adding TOO MUCH information. Go back and have a look at my 1st ever post, genius (“Animated Speaker Button. Help Please”). I’ve been more detailed than anyone…and only one response, which didn’t really answer my question. I ended up solving the problem myself through determination, problem solving and pure luck, not by learning Actionscript back to front…A whole 2 weeks later I might add. A very frustrating experience to say the least. Just a little bit of a “poke” in the right direction would’ve been great!

google search and search this site for tutorials and past threads

I’ve tried both of these many times. If there was a record for the most google searches in limited period of time, I’d easily get the gold medal!

Is there a reason why I should come on the forums after 8-10 hours of working in Flash and spend another hour helping people who seemingly won’t do anything to help themselves?

For the simple joy of helping people less fortunate and knowledge than your gifted self…and of course, good karma. :slight_smile: I’ve already helped somebody with their “Transitions” question, only a week after learning how to do it myself…I’m not sure if I gave the answer, but AT LEAST I HAD A GO. And yes, it did FEEL GOOD to help somebody. You should try it, you might like it. :slight_smile:

I’d hope you’re getting “awesome help” from someone at Expert Exchange, that’s what you’re paying for.

Thanks for your imput simplistik, but if you’d read my post properly you would’ve noticed that I’m actually getting the help through “Flash Advisor”, not Experts Exchange. FA is also FREE, like this site. :slight_smile:

36

:expressionless:

37

couldn’t you just add more tutorials to the main page?

questions keep getting solved, but buried in the forums…

then again I’d love to get paid for my advise:P

38

See, this is the problem: you need to be willing to learn. Otherwise, how do you ever expect to be able to solve these kind of problems yourself? You still seem to be expecting a solution taylor-made specifically for your needs - well surprise, that’s not how it works. You try to solve a problem, we help you figure it out. If you can’t be bothered to try to comprehend a 9 page long (omgomgomg) tutorial about it, why should we bother to help you understand what you’re doing?

This is the standard response you get when you tell someone to google something. It’s funny how they never manage to find anything, but I always manage to find things within 8 seconds. This is not targetted at you specifically, I’m just saying that I’ve heard this so many times before that I stopped believing it.

Funny you should bring that up, that’s the tutorial this thread got me thinking about. I used to answer questions about that tutorial specifically but I just gave up due to the sheer number of people that:

a) Want me to make them a personal custom version of it
b) Do not understand how targetting paths work (which I consider basic knowledge)
c) Did not in fact read the tutorial
d) Keep asking questions that have already been answered plenty of times

This is not only limited to the transitions tutorial; this is pretty much the case with anything you put up. For example, a while ago I made an MP3 player, and I got absolutely flooded with people who barely understood Flash wanting me to create custom versions of it for them. I ended up ignoring them. That is also the reason why my footer says Member #2 of the “Don’t message me your flash questions” cult.

39

Just to reiterate what Voetsjoeba has said, and using your animated speakers as an example:

Poke 1 - Google Search: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=flash+animated+speaker&meta=
Poke 2 - Kirupa Search: http://www.kirupa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=293797

I wasn’t aware that medals were handed out for an inability to search :look:

As it turns out, you were provided with a perfectly reasonable reply by peartart but you dismissed it out of hand, and whined about pasting symbols instead. For future reference, Flash is working correctly - it’s just that “place” has a different meaning in a movieclip to “place” on the stage because the coordinates for each may well be different depending on the registration point…this is adequately explained in the Flash help files.

I can assure that there’s no bias when I elect to respond to a question, other than whether I think I can actually answer it adequately - but I may think twice in future if the questioner isn’t willing, or able, to help themselves.

40

seriously why did the thread end up like this? and why does everyone have to explain themselves to one new person that is obviously not happy with the way this site operates. Mate your idea was a good one, it’s not going to happen, if you don’t like the way we help then leave… very simple.