Helping newbies

I’ve been trying to answer some questions in the Flash and the Flash MX forums, but I’m encountering a frustration… People who just signed up 3 hours ago, and expect people to write them the code to something they URGENTLY need.

I mean, I have no problem helping out. I know how to develop algorithms for most of the things that they ask, and it’d be definitely be fun to put application to the ideas… but I just get frustrated when they say: “Oh, send me the code for that… and I’ll put it on my site… and please hurry!”

I dont know, these are people who just come for one thing and they leave… I’m not sure why it frustrates me, but it does…

…maybe some should only get a link to a MM tutorial page…

or lock up your advice behind a Pay Pal slot :beam:

lol, this is probably refering to me. if so sry lavaboy, but i didnt sign up 30 mins ago :hair:

i have been getting alot of PMs on how i did things and if they could have the fla for the thing that they wanted. i got alot last week too…

thats becasue these people are frickin lazy and need to have their heads punched through a wall… :pirate:

oh UncleGuito… I wasn’t talking about you, by the way… I was happy to help you, and you weren’t being demanding about the help… and I’ll be glad to help you whenever you need.

But I dont know… something frustrates me about a certain kind of people who just ‘expect’ the help. I’m not sure what it is though…

i am more then happy to help people but when they ask for the fla’s it gets me sorta mad.
lol

I wish I could get annoyed with helping people. I always read stuff and I’m like, dang, I really want to help this guy out. But then I can’t cuz I basically suck at life. I know what you mean about people like that though, even though I don’t help them it seems really rude.

Just my 2 cents

Some people need help fast… I know there has been a time when I needed help fast…

Whether or not they just join 10 minutes ago or 10 weeks ago it shouldn’t matter… Help when it’s needed…

Just do what I do though… I demand extra information and a “try” at it… If they don’t wanna help at trying to understand it… Then I won’t bother at all.

As the rotartsinimda of the random forum, I require you to make me the best footer ever in 15 minutes Lavaboy. If I don’t have it from you in 15 minutes, I’m going to have to use my powers.

see, I think I’m beginning to pinpoint what it is.
Certain newbie questions aren’t aimed towards learning how to code, but towards making us do the work for them. I’d rather explain how to do something in a methodical manner, instead of writing the code for them…

dont get me wrong… i dont mind helping some one when i can :wink:

oh alex, I hadn’t seen your earlier post. Yeah, when people ask for fla’s it gets me kinda mad too… Cause I can just see them modifying the code a little bit, without having an understanding of what it actually does.

I understand the value of seeing code in order to understand a process. But when I just explained a certain process of doing something, and then they ask for the FLA, I know they just want to copy and paste code…

I don’t mind helping when I can. I like it when they say thanx if they got what they needed.

From now on, if people say THANX we should give them a FREE GIFT :smiley:

haha…

Yeha that’s exactly why I don’t help all the times lava… And I definetly do NOT take .fla’s…

I will help you out by looking through your .fla under one condition… if you really are truly lost and you have given it an honest try with written text. If I can’t help you out through words… And you have trie dan dtried… I will help you out by fixing some problems here and there.

It helps weed out all the people who don’t care because when I say things like… Well try this… They go… Umm No thanks… Can you just… Nope shut up and try what I said lmao

haha… yeah. I don’t particularly feel like talking about syntax, cause they have the flash guide for that. I will help with method and process, not with writing up an example for the person. But I’d be willing to look at code if they have a bug they can’t find.

This kind of issue has come up before. It’s not so much the urgentness of the request that people object to, it’s more the ‘write my code for me’ bit.

Personally, I don’t think anyone can expect a forum member to write their whole program for them. This doesn’t mean that no-one can post code or anything like that. There’s plenty of times when you need to post code so someone can point out what’s wrong with it. In fact, I think my first ever post on here was doing that for drag and drop, when David was kind enough to point out my blunder. :slight_smile: Providing guidance and things like that. Helping to point people in the right direction. Sometimes I’ve posted or mailed fla files to members for them to take apart. I don’t have any problem with that.

It’s just the kind of post that says basically “I’ve got an assignment due in an hour and I couldn’t be bothered to work on it myself so will you do it for me?” That grates.

Exactly… :frowning: