An interesting rant on Arch users

Lounge EndeavourOS pub
101

Even more to the point then.

Anyway. My part has been made known to try and help others understand. No need to keep going in circles.

102

No. In this case only 99.009901 % of those present were invited.

But then maybe you wrote mistakenly minus ?

:abacus:

103

So, is Endeavour 102% Arch? :smiley:

4 Likes
104

Define Arch!

:wink:

1 Like
105

image

9 Likes
106

Or, maybe Arch with benefits?

8 Likes
107

EndeavourOS is that girlfriend Arch had in high school and was a total jerk to that later became a supermodel.

6 Likes
108

Could be. Either way, it’s not Arch. And oof. Tough crowd here. Maybe this is the Arch forums.

Disclaimer: no actual math was done at any point for this thread.

3 Likes
109

This.

“Normal” forums let people ask the same question over and over again, and that behaviour is enabled (and even encouraged) by people trying to be the first to copy-paste an answer rather than link to existing documentation.

It seems “friendlier” when someone individually answers your question even though you didn’t bother to look for the answer, but it ends up being significantly counter-productive in the long term. Expecting someone to provide personal help to thousands of people who all ask the same question (or minor variations on a theme) ends up with an inefficient and clogged system.

I’d actually support a moderation approach which unlisted questions which have been asked before - that way the person who asked the question can still follow up and it should help keep the forum content lean.

3 Likes
110

I partially agree - but I would suggest a slightly different amelioration…

Rather than either pointing someone to the ‘official documentation’, OR answering the question in depth - just link a probable answer from this forum (or wiki or website), and see if that solves the problem. Actually, I see that fairly often here - maybe we need an index? :grin:

Anyway - that approach is somewhat personalized, enables follow-up if the info is not enough, and doesn’t clog things up too badly. Win win win?

2 Likes
111

That works until someone immediately posts the information from the linked post as a reply…

112

You mean someone other than a moderator?

113

Oh come on, we shouldn’t turn this forum to Arch :sweat_smile:

I think encouraging links to wiki / FAQ & Solutions posts as best practice - is more than enough…

2 Likes
114

Yes, there will always be someone who wants to be helpful and will post the copy-paste answer (even if it’s already copy-paste in the linked post or page).

115

Arch Linux is an independently developed, x86-64 general-purpose GNU/Linux distribution that strives to provide the latest stable versions of most software by following a rolling-release model. The default installation is a minimal base system, configured by the user to only add what is purposely required.

1 Like
116

Maybe a quiet message that the preferred method is to link the ‘answer post’ when possible? Should keep the incidence to a minimum - after all, it happens to

  1. be helpful (good thing)
  2. make poster look good (can be redirected to community standards) :grin:
5 Likes
117

I like looking good but most of the time i don’t! :rofl:

Edit: Comes with age.

2 Likes
118

I tell myself that, too! But, where’s the wisdom that is supposed to join it?

1 Like
119

I forget!

2 Likes
120

That’s one school of thought. I belong to a different one. There certainly are questions that I think should be considered stupid. Here is a non-exhaustive list that mentions just a few typical examples:

  1. Question that is too broad, for example:
    My computer does not work, how should I fix it?
  2. The so called XY problem, when an incorrect premise is presupposed in the question:
    How do I use awk to format a USB drive?
    Usually, it is nowhere near as obvious. Typically, it sounds like a smart, reasonable question, and a lot of time is wasted by everyone involved until it is discovered that it is, in fact, a stupid question.
  3. Question that would otherwise be perfectly valid and reasonable to ask, but has been answered ad nauseam, and it’s easily searchable, thus demonstrating that the person asking it hasn’t spent even 5 minutes searching for an answer:
    How do I fix my network connection with r8168 on the linux-zen kernel?
  4. A question that is insulting:
    Why is Linux community so hostile to newbies?
    Insulting people will make them less likely to want to answer your questions. If getting an answer is your goal, this is an objectively stupid thing to do.
  5. A question that is about something purely subjective and is likely to cause unnecessary flamewars:
    Which is the best Desktop Environment?
2 Likes