Leechers and lerkers... The world is full of them... And our beloved forum too

As most of you know, I've been around for over 10 years now, and have been watching this community grow and grow and grow...

From time to time I get PM'ed by an "unknown" forum member (I don't like nor feel the need to block incoming messages), with messages within the lines of...

"Please sir, I need do notification status, how do, please."

These, to me, are Leachers, that once they get what they want (a fully working app without doing any actual coding), will never show up in the forum again... Or become a lerkers until they need more leaching...

I sometimes feel the forum is a huge AA convention, where a small group of about...500 users (optimistically) do pitch in and keep the forum interesting, while the rest just "exist"... It's like going to the AA meetings only to get the "100 days" badge without any therapeutic effort...

I know this is not exclusive of our forum, and that this post will not change a thing, but...

Leachers... Be less leachy and actually try to code before asking...
Ask IN THE FORUM so that everyone can decide to help or not (we all have different fields of expertise)
DO NOT PM A USER ASKING HELP ABOUT SOMETHING WITHOUT EVEN HAVING USED OR TRIED THE FORUM EXAMPLES ON THAT SUBJECT.

LERKERS... You may keep lerking... Either you all are genius who never need help, or you just "exist", so don't be frustrated if some decide to ignore you.

I agree on the leechers part: there is no point in asking to a user something that can be asked (or simply searched) in the forum.

Cableguy said:

I sometimes feel the forum is a huge AA convention, where a small group of about...500 users (optimistically) do pitch in and keep the forum interesting, while the rest just "exist"... It's like going to the AA meetings only to get the "100 days" badge without any therapeutic effort...

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I think this part is more complex: there can exist many other factors why people don't want to (or dare to, or feel in the mood to, or simply don't need to) write in the forum. I think this would require a deeper understanding of the diversity of users' ages/knowledge/areas of interest/purpose/language limitations/... of the different community members.

To make my point clear, I totally agree that the forum would be muuuuuch better if everybody participated, and I agree with the existence of annoying leechers (they are among us!!! )

I think that we, the more active members, should make sure that the forum is friendly to new members.
If someone sent you a PM with a technical question then he didn't feel confident enough to post it in the public forum.

I never answer private technical questions. I always ask the other person to start a new thread in the questions forum.

A major reason for the latest forum changes was to make it easier to post questions and in the correct place.
Hopefully it will be easier for new members to participate.

I don't consider a "when to code SQL database" a technical question... and this is just an example...
The user in question sent me, and I'm sure a few others, this question, without any kind of indication of any problems he encountered, or if HIS code gave errors at any point...
If he had asked where he could find tutos related to SQL, then that would be a newbie question and I would have no problem redirecting him in the right direction...
My "angry" goes to those that don't ask questions, they demand working code!

Cableguy said:

My "angry" goes to those that don't ask questions, they demand working code!

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I'm with you. If you want to get help then you should respect the other members.

Cableguy said:

If he had asked where he could find tutos related to SQL, then that would be a newbie question and I would have no problem redirecting him in the right direction...

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I wouldn't do it in a private message.

Private messages = knowledge that gets lost.

Erel said:

I wouldn't do it in a private message.

Private messages = knowledge that gets lost.

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By "right direction" I meant a forum search, so that at least he could try to find some pertinent info... Then if that failed, create a forum thread...
The search engines has come a long way, from a time that it gave almost no related results, to, as we are now, finding the right answers in the very firsts 2 or 3 results.
Newbies, and everyone else for that matter, should be prompt for a search before the creation of a new thread.

Cableguy said:

By "right direction" I meant a forum search, so that at least he could try to find some pertinent info... Then if that failed, create a forum thread...
The search engines has come a long way, from a time that it gave almost no related results, to, as we are now, finding the right answers in the very firsts 2 or 3 results.
Newbies, and everyone else for that matter, should be prompt for a search before the creation of a new thread.

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I agree that a forum search should always be the first step and PM's are simply not done in such a case.

Although I have noticed myself that it's not always easy to find the right keywords, I've only been coding for a few years and I don't always know the right 'terminology' to be able to find what I'm looking for. This is mainly due to the fact that I have lesser experience than the most of you, so from time to time someone can be 'forced' to ask a question that's a little vague, off course just asking "when to code SQL database" isn't even a question.

Erel said:

Private messages = knowledge that gets lost.

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That´s the reason i dont like in private messages asking for help.

I love sharing my knowledge; in the PUBLIC!

Can I be a lurker, I only pop on to try and help others

Daestrum said:

Can I be a lurker, I only pop on to try and help others

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Sorry, too late for that...

My answer (today) to a private message ("I am totally new to B4A. Please don't aks me too many questions, I have no idea"):

If you are new to B4x you should NOT start with a database project. Noone will create an app for you for free or guide you for several days. You need to learn how it works. There are sooo many examples here so just try it out.

Start with the beginners guide: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/b4a-beginners-guide.9578/

For SQlite start with this tutorials: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/sqlitelight-four-simple-sqlite-projects.35419/#content

If you have questions then

- be polite!
- ask IN the forum (DO NOT contact members how to "make an app" or so)
- tell what your expect/want (example "I need to insert a row but I get THIS error")
- do not just post "it does not work". It's like "my car does not start - what is the problem"
- post the non working code (with code tags!)
- post the complete error from the logs

The people will then help you.

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KMatle said:

My answer (today) to a private message ("I am totally new to B4A. Please don't aks me too many questions, I have no idea"):

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I started B4X with a database project...

One thing to keep in mind is that a lurker in one forum might be an active member in another forum. It depends on one's time and interest, and most of all where you are in your level of experience.

I fully agree on PM's for asking help, exactly because of what Erel said:

Private messages = knowledge that gets lost.

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But what about PM'ing someone to draw attention to a post? For example, I asked a question here which have so far not got a response. Maybe because the author of the library has not been around for some time.

Would it be appropriate to send him a PM to ask if he could take a look on the post?

Martin Larsen said:

Maybe because the author of the library has not been around for some time.

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he was last seen in forum yesterday.

Martin Larsen said:

But what about PM'ing someone to draw attention to a post?

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This is a good question.
As I see it, if you believe that the library developer possibly missed your post and you do it once then it is fine.
If the member is an active member then assume that he did saw your post.

Martin Larsen said:

But what about PM'ing someone to draw attention to a post?

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that's a completely different ballgame...
like "please take a look at post concerning your lib" versus "when to code mysql into database" out of the blue!
I can understand that not everyone speaks or writes fluently in English, but...

As I discover new things that may be difficult (to me or others), I post them as tutorials or snippets.
They are often obscure but essentially get the point across. Hopefully the reader feels the same.

The very few times I have been PM'd (fortunately) has been from regular users with legitimate questions, where I know what they are asking. Mostly, these PM's are from well known users who contribute more than I.

If not, I don't (can not) respond.

However, pointing posts takes time and effort - away from our own busy schedule.