[wp-forums] Err, spiraling out of control?

[Phu]

Great post Podz.

One of the great things about the forum was how helpful everyone was; people
of all skill levels and backgrounds were able to step in and out and give
their knowledge freely without limitation or reservation.

We're all stronger in some areas and weaker in others; the beauty of the
forum was that everyone could contribute. If you don't feel that you can or
that you want to, just take a step back and allow someone else who might
want or be able to. There is no need for anyone to control/direct things or
answer every issue.

>And getting back to validation...It's not a cloak to hide behind.
Validation is an aid, not a crutch, requirement or barrier to entry. I
really dislike it when people berate others for validation errors; it's ok
if you believe that validation errors are the cause of the problems but
please don't jump down people's neck for it.

On 4/4/06, Podz <podz at tamba2.org.uk> wrote:
>
> > http://wordpress.org/support/topic/67498?replies=16
>
> There has always been the occasional thread which becomes .....
> unhelpful at some point. And then the OP is actually helped or told to
> start a new thread where they can be assisted anew. It's happened many
> times before and will do again.
>
> Regardless of anyone's site, opinions or otherwise if they ask for help
> we should give it. If their site is something you are uncomfortable with
> then don't help. There is no requirement to say you won't help and why -
> someone else will happen along and take the task.
>
> A couple of years ago or even more recently people would come to the
> forums having tons of errors. I remember someone with over 460 - but
> forums help and people did and the post people make when together with
> forum helpers they make their site validate is wonderful to read - you
> can tell they are really pleased. And isn't that why we do it?
> If someone doesn't understand validation, if someone doesn't understand
> that 200 errors actually could mean just 60, if someone doesn't
> understand that one error can cancel out another and if someone doesn't
> know that our help is going to be limited because of the errors then
> that is not their fault. Neither is it ours - but we have the knowledge
> and we need to pass that on first to get their attention, second to get
> them to agree and third to get them to work with us to get things
> better. Threads like that are long, they take work, they take patience -
> but again we aren't just here for the snappy answer or to just help
> someone whose site we like.
> Someone write a really good post about validation and why it's important
> from our point of view. Then we can usefully point people at it.
>
> When did we get all elite? When did we raise the bar for all questions?
> When did we decide that we want it good before we move to help?
> You can argue that it's not WP ("What IS WordPress help? Discuss") and
> in some ways you could argue that's correct but was it actually so bad a
> request? It was just CSS and we help with that all the time.
>
> And getting back to validation - I've seen posts where someone has
> directed the OP to get validated first even when the validation errors
> are very minor and have zero impact on appearance or functionality. It's
> not a cloak to hide behind.
>
> Anyone spot the link spammer? It's in their interests to stir the pot..
> so they duck under the noise.
>
> Hopefully that thread can be looked at in the cold light of day (so to
> speak) and something learned about it not happening again. It will of
> course - but hopefully different people will be involved :)
>
> P.
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Phu | http://ifelse.co.uk | http://www.phuly.co.uk