AutoHotkey Community

[xx3nvyxx]

I have noticed a surprising amount of users responding to questions in the 'Ask for Help" section with RTFM (Read The F***ing Manual). Well, I'm exaggerating, but still. These questions should never be answered with that, even though we all know they should read first and ask questions later.
_________________
Now the world has gone to bed,
Darkness won't engulf my head,
I can see by infra-red,
How I hate the night.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
Try to count electric sheep,
Sweet dream wishes you can keep,
How I hate the night.

[shimanov]

So it's not Read The Fancy/Fictitious/Funny/etc. -- your guess is as good as mine -- Manual (RTFM).

... I hate acronyms.

[Chris]

Although I know a lot of people ask questions that they could quickly answer themselves by reading the FAQ or searching the forum, I agree that responding with RTFM or even just RTM is likely to cause offense (even if no offense was intended).

Therefore, to reply to such careless questions from new visitors, I think it's best to to avoid saying RTFM explicitly. Instead, give short answer to point them in the right direction. For example, you might name a couple of commands they can look up in the help file.

[BoBo]

RTFM - that's what the guy at the bike store told me when I entered his store and asked him what i'd to do regarding my oil dripping engine ... and I thought he meant: "RideThatFabulousMotorbike"

[AHKnow*]

I think its really in poor taste to be so mean. Why?

1. Often, I think new and casual users of a program have a harder time locating what they want. For some reason, I think it just takes a bit of time for your brain to get used to something new or different.

2. I think many of new and casual users are using AutoHotkey to solve some type of problem. Therefore, they may panic or get easily frustrated and ask for help, when they can't solve the problem quickly enough.

3. Despite, being a "comparatively" easy and intuitive automation scripting language, there are still a whole bunch of AutoHotkey commands. Its not hard to overlook commands, not realize there are commands for something, not think to solve a problem in a certain way, etc...

I think its much better to be patient and simply direct people to the where the commands are to solve their problem.

4. Sometimes, the issue may be more than commands and about how to put a script together to solve a problem. I think for 90% of new and hobby programmers, it takes time to get experience at using the scripting language. Many times people need examples of solutions and how to put scripts together before the "really get" the overall concepts.

Even the help examples may not be help you because they don't exactly show how to solve a problem, the concept is not fully understood (thus they have questions), or the user needs a unique solution that help examples don't deal with.

In these situations it would be nice to at least give them pseudo code or a combination of commands they could use.

5. I think some people like to "abuse" other users or try to impress everyone by "pretending" to be the world's smartest programmer. The easy victims will be new or casual users. I've noticed that some people are like, "How could you be so "stupid" (directly or indirectly stated) and not know this." Yet while abusing and insulting the user, these wannabe super smart programmers will give NO help, examples, or very little guidance. Even if they do give help, there is really no excuse to abuse and insult users in exchange for information.

6. Some people are gifted programmers and others are not. Some people have done programming for years and others have not. Some people are professional programmers or went to school for programming and others have not. Obviously, they are different levels, therefore its silly to assume that everybody should know everything about a scripting or programming language.

Overall, I think it just pays to be nicer and offer guidance. Plus, you never know, that person that is assumed to be "lesser" may become "greater" later on or be the one to offer a needed solution to a programming problem.

[shimanov]

[toralf]

I confess, I sometimes use the "RTFM" term.

I doubt that someone will name we someone who doesn't help. Or someone who tries to abuse. Since I use there term with reference to specific sections or keywords.

In the case of use, the user in question didn't put enough effort (to my understanding) into trying it (solving his problem) himself.
I don't want to offend anyone, but try to convince that reading the manual can help a lot. And to my findings it helps to "push" these users into the right direction.
_________________
Ciao
toralf

[kapege.de]

After the "seniors" helped me in the beginning very kindly I'm starting to help others the same way now, 'til I understand AHK in the meantime a little and can confess(?) the other's problems that I had in the beginning also.

This here is a good and friendly forum! I'm in other forums also. And there the "Umgangston" - the way of nice speech isn't very developed.

Thanx @ all for their politeness!

Peter