Remembering what this section of the forum is for.

[Stonent]

+1 to Rigby's post, with one difference: when I am replying to something technical for a beginner I tend to spend a lot of time to verify all sources, info for correctness, etc. What ends up happening is that I usually am overrun by faster contributors. Thus I refrain from using the channel capacity of the forum with comments are so below their entropy they carry no useful information.

Similarly to Phaedrus, part of my work is answering technical questions on certain forums - yes, from customers and from hobbyists, students, etc AD FREAKING NAUSEUM. I have my share of terse or really insulting questions that were replied with "Google is your friend: <insert_meaningful_result>" or "with the level of detail provided it is impossible to...", but the alternative of shooting a snide comment wastes your time and does not help the other party.

@c4757... I am also very intrigued by the mystery of the missing post... 

I shall refer everyone to the official "How to ask questions the smart way" by Eric S. Raymond. I think it should be required reading for users of web forums, but you can't always get what you want.

http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

It's very thorough and explains why new people often get snide remarks or why it's not helpful for people to give no information and expect a detailed answer.

Specifically this portion:

Use meaningful, specific subject headers

On mailing lists, newsgroups or Web forums, the subject header is your golden opportunity to attract qualified experts' attention in around 50 characters or fewer. Don't waste it on babble like “Please help me” (let alone “PLEASE HELP ME!!!!”; messages with subjects like that get discarded by reflex). Don't try to impress us with the depth of your anguish; use the space for a super-concise problem description instead.

One good convention for subject headers, used by many tech support organizations, is “object - deviation”. The “object” part specifies what thing or group of things is having a problem, and the “deviation” part describes the deviation from expected behavior.

Stupid:
HELP! Video doesn't work properly on my laptop!
Smart:
X.org 6.8.1 misshapen mouse cursor, Fooware MV1005 vid. chipset
Smarter:
X.org 6.8.1 mouse cursor on Fooware MV1005 vid. chipset - is misshapen

The process of writing an “object-deviation” description will help you organize your thinking about the problem in more detail. What is affected? Just the mouse cursor or other graphics too? Is this specific to the X.org version of X? To version 6.8.1? Is this specific to Fooware video chipsets? To model MV1005? A hacker who sees the result can immediately understand what it is that you are having a problem with and the problem you are having, at a glance.

More generally, imagine looking at the index of an archive of questions, with just the subject lines showing. Make your subject line reflect your question well enough that the next guy searching the archive with a question similar to yours will be able to follow the thread to an answer rather than posting the question again.

I particularly like this line

Don't try to impress us with the depth of your anguish

I do find it very annoying when people seemed more focused on getting sympathy from you for their level of frustration than getting to the point.

In my line of work supporting the IT portion of a factory I deal with stuff ranging from helping someone understand why their mailbox is full up to one of the PCs connected to a robot threw an error and now the robot is physically smashing the product. (Ok that exact problem hasn't happed when I was working but it has happened before and if it did again and I was here, I'd be the one going out there.)

So back to the whining part. Lets say someone puts in a ticket for help for say the mail box full issue. The problem may only be "Well looks like you've got a 1GB file stuck in your outbox and that's never going to send" but a lot of times they'll insist on telling you that "I've been waiting hours and hours opening and closing Outlook rebooting my computer for hours and hours and I'm so frustrated blah blah" for 10 minutes before they'll even let you touch the computer.

Another goodie:

Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language

We've found by experience that people who are careless and sloppy writers are usually also careless and sloppy at thinking and coding (often enough to bet on, anyway). Answering questions for careless and sloppy thinkers is not rewarding; we'd rather spend our time elsewhere.

So expressing your question clearly and well is important. If you can't be bothered to do that, we can't be bothered to pay attention. Spend the extra effort to polish your language. It doesn't have to be stiff or formal — in fact, hacker culture values informal, slangy and humorous language used with precision. But it has to be precise; there has to be some indication that you're thinking and paying attention.

Spell, punctuate, and capitalize correctly. Don't confuse “its” with “it's”, “loose” with “lose”, or “discrete” with “discreet”. Don't TYPE IN ALL CAPS; this is read as shouting and considered rude. (All-smalls is only slightly less annoying, as it's difficult to read. Alan Cox can get away with it, but you can't.)

More generally, if you write like a semi-literate boob you will very likely be ignored. So don't use instant-messaging shortcuts. Spelling "you" as "u" makes you look like a semi-literate boob to save two entire keystrokes. Worse: writing like a l33t script kiddie hax0r is the absolute kiss of death and guarantees you will receive nothing but stony silence (or, at best, a heaping helping of scorn and sarcasm) in return.

If you are writing in English but it is a second language for you, it is good form to alert potential respondents to potential language difficulties and options for getting around them.

So in my opinion, the approach to the question generates the hostility more than the actual meat of the question.

[c4757p]

So back to the whining part. Lets say someone puts in a ticket for help for say the mail box full issue. The problem may only be "Well looks like you've got a 1GB file stuck in your outbox and that's never going to send" but a lot of times they'll insist on telling you that "I've been waiting hours and hours opening and closing Outlook rebooting my computer for hours and hours and I'm so frustrated blah blah" for 10 minutes before they'll even let you touch the computer.

I can often be reasonably patient with electronics. But trying to help people with computers is likely to make me rather violent...

[Kirigozo]

Reading this thread has been very informative. I think it should be pinned to the front page; it describes what this forum is all about and prospective members should be forewarned.

Now play nice, children.

Good bye....

[Stonent]

So back to the whining part. Lets say someone puts in a ticket for help for say the mail box full issue. The problem may only be "Well looks like you've got a 1GB file stuck in your outbox and that's never going to send" but a lot of times they'll insist on telling you that "I've been waiting hours and hours opening and closing Outlook rebooting my computer for hours and hours and I'm so frustrated blah blah" for 10 minutes before they'll even let you touch the computer.

I can often be reasonably patient with electronics. But trying to help people with computers is likely to make me rather violent...

Technology very rarely frustrates me. PEOPLE frustrate me. Technology is logical, it does what it is told relentlessly whether you like it or not. People relentlessly do whatever they want regardless of what they're told.

[Skimask]

@Skimask
Doctor's job is to provide medical advice and is getting payed for that. Is anyone here employed at the EEVblog forum to answer n00b questions? From what I can see, the answer is no, so there's no need to complain about lack of payment.

My point exactly...

[rsjsouza]

Good read, Stonent. Now on to make people read all that as well...

Don't try to impress us with the depth of your anguish

I do find it very annoying when people seemed more focused on getting sympathy from you for their level of frustration than getting to the point.

I usually get that not only from customers but also from fellow colleagues. My answer to that is usually something I learned a long while ago based on the graph below: why the heck did you let an important problem become urgent?

Source: http://lifetrainingonline.com/blog/first-things-first-chapters-1-5.htm

Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language

We've found by experience that people who are careless and sloppy writers are usually also careless and sloppy at thinking and coding (often enough to bet on, anyway). Answering questions for careless and sloppy thinkers is not rewarding; we'd rather spend our time elsewhere.

I usually say that the amount of effort in your answer is proportional to the amount of effort the person put in asking the question.

However, regarding grammar, clarity, etc, it is very hard to do in an international forum. I get a lot of questions from around the world and it is not uncommon that I have to use the portuguese way of saying things before I can decode the message (I am brazilian). Not only that, but certain cultures (brazilian included) have a tendency to tell a long background and intertwine the questions with the text, or sometimes only at the end. Other cultures (US american included) diagonally read long texts and usually do not comprehend the problem at hand.

In my experience, over the years I always had to work four times harder to write a question in english and make sure the verbiage was appropriate, the spelling was correct - even still I had communication problems. Polishing the communications in english took me several years and, after I reached a point of reasonable clarity, I used to help my customers and even re-write their questions so they would get an answer.

As the text said, these will fall off the importance list if you have schedules and goals or is simply pressed by time (this usually does not happen here as everybody is a volunteer).

Technology very rarely frustrates me. PEOPLE frustrate me. Technology is logical, it does what it is told relentlessly whether you like it or not. People relentlessly do whatever they want regardless of what they're told.

Have you ever had to deal with a silicon bug during development before? Or had intermittent or simply non-working things that were fixed by a reboot, a cable replacement, a loose pin? Yes, technology can be terribly frustrating at times!

[Paul Price]

OMG, I am becoming a troll!


Perhaps, when someone joins this website and registers, a small sentence of suggestion might be offered to newbies to get good results for their questions:

...To expect many helpful replies, please be careful to take some time to explain what  your question or problem is specifically about. If possible post a schematic or just take the time to scan in a hand-drawn circuit. Don't be vague. Try to be brief while giving the essential important details regarding your inquiry or question about a topic. Don't expect others to do try to guess what  your question is really about. Don't waste the time of professionals that are very willing to help by asking a question that can be answered by a simple Google search on your own.

[c4757p]

I really think it's more important that the established members remember to remind newbies of this like polite, civil adults, rather than that the newbies are dutifully made aware of it.

[Stonent]

However, regarding grammar, clarity, etc, it is very hard to do in an international forum. I get a lot of questions from around the world and it is not uncommon that I have to use the portuguese way of saying things before I can decode the message (I am brazilian). Not only that, but certain cultures (brazilian included) have a tendency to tell a long background and intertwine the questions with the text, or sometimes only at the end. Other cultures (US american included) diagonally read long texts and usually do not comprehend the problem at hand.

In my experience, over the years I always had to work four times harder to write a question in english and make sure the verbiage was appropriate, the spelling was correct - even still I had communication problems. Polishing the communications in english took me several years and, after I reached a point of reasonable clarity, I used to help my customers and even re-write their questions so they would get an answer.

As the text said, these will fall off the importance list if you have schedules and goals or is simply pressed by time (this usually does not happen here as everybody is a volunteer).

There was more about the English part that I cut out because the post was getting way to long.  Basically it was long the lines of if English is not your native language, just preface the question with that and do your best and also proposed posting the question in your native language as well in case someone else could translate for the rest of the users.

A few years ago a Brazilian man came up to my counter at a store and said he needed more (I'll write this phonetically) "j-eye-guh" (jeye-guh) at first I didn't catch what he meant but then he said computer and I knew he was wanting more memory or a bigger hard drive. "J-eye-guh" meaning giga as in gigabytes.  He asked if I spoke Portuguese and I said sorry no, but if he knew some Spanish I could get another person who spoke Spanish but he said no.  Eventually I just pulled up Google Translate on the computer and we typed responses back and forth. It ended up being that he needed to get the model of computer before we could tell him what could work in it.

[David_AVD]

...  Eventually I just pulled up Google Translate on the computer and we typed responses back and forth. It ended up being that he needed to get the model of computer before we could tell him what could work in it.

What a fantastic, but simple solution.   

[Lurch]

The problem is striking that happy medium. I realise a lot of the people posting on this forum speak English only as a second language, if they even speak it as a language at all. Sometimes you can give people slack for not knowing the terminology or being unclear but regardless of the language then the effort can be the same. This forum is the most uncritical one I know, I know of plenty of forums where images are banned for example, or set to a reasonable limit. This has nothing to do with being polite or arsey, this morning there is a thread with a massive 3000 x something massive image from someone who works with computers and images on a daily basis. If you mention it you're likely to be told to stop being picky, OK I just ignore them now but then you end up ignoring half the forum which I'm sure is counter intuitive.

On the other end of the scale for example have a look at the FreeBSD forums, absolute nightmare, I can't even be bothered to post. The moderators pick each post apart and correct all grammar and spelling, punctuation, formatting and anything else and also make such a big deal out of it it distracts you from being able to read anything as it's full of crossed out bits and bolded edits. This is going a bit too far in the other direction.

I think for the size of the forum this is basically just a bog standard install of some forum software and people just get on with it. this is no criticism of Dave, but there aren't really any rules too follow so no-one can really enforce them so it is just a load of people throwing their own way of doing things in a forum an people maybe complaining if they feel like it. It's pretty much Anarchy, in a semi controlled fashion!

[ve7xen]

I really think it's more important that the established members remember to remind newbies of this like polite, civil adults, rather than that the newbies are dutifully made aware of it.

Part of being polite and civil is being respectful - especially when asking someone else to invest their time in you. That means taking your own time to formulate a sensible question, compose a coherent post, and wait patiently for someone to respond.

Unfortunately, these simple norms are beyond the grasp of many first-posters across the Internet, and I think making them duly aware of proper etiquette is doing them, and us, a service. If they heed the advice, it will help them get better answers, reduce the frustration of the experts, and improve post quality overall. Good questions are rare, I don't think the standard needs to be particularly high, but I do think teaching people to ask good questions is more important than answering their bad ones. I would say it's totally appropriate to call folks out for lazy, vague questions and point them to an excellent resource like the classic ESR treatise linked above.

I don't get upset with lazy questions for the most part, but I certainly don't go out of my way to help those posters either.

[Shock]

Easy...
If you can't add value or be patient enough to help people learn without prejudice don't reply to beginner threads.
If you have a good tutorial, diagram, video and you know it works post the link rather than "google it".

If you think the above is unreasonable then you need help more than the beginners need yours.

[iceisfun]

I've found most of the stuff I've read here is people being helpful and when I've asked questions people have been generally helpful. There will be trolls and stuff but over all the EEVBlog community is quite good.

[Smokey]

If you have a good tutorial, diagram, video and you know it works post the link rather than "google it".

I know a few people, and yes they tend to be of the older variety, who don't first think to do a web search for things.  That's just not the way they are used to getting information.  When you show them that they can essentially ask their question to Google in plain English and it returns what they are looking for, they are genuinely surprised how easy it was.  Every time.
They haven't learned the lesson that the first thing you should do is "Google it".  There is a reason EVERY computer tech support script starts with "turn it off... wait 10 seconds... and turn it back on again".  You have to say it because there are still a significant number of people that still don't know to do that.

I've found most of the stuff I've read here is people being helpful and when I've asked questions people have been generally helpful. There will be trolls and stuff but over all the EEVBlog community is quite good.

True.

[SeanB]

I try to help if I actually have a clue..........

Otherwise ignore, somebody generally will help.

[Rick Law]

As somewhat of a newbie myself, I must say, I learn a lot from the replies to questions others posted here.  There is a lot of combined brain power and knowledge here.  I am very impressed.  In fact, I am appreciative for the knowledge I have gained here.

There will always be occasional impolite questions or answers, but all told, this forum does better than many others.  It is good to have an occasional reminder for being civil.  But let us not get too distracted by them.

[madshaman]

When I was an op on a couple irc programming channels, I would see newbies come in with a question, then immediately get attacked for not knowing something or understanding something.

It used to drive myself and some of my friends right up the wall.  They would end up frustrated, have their self esteem collapsed and be put off from seeking guidance.

Myself, when I was in highschool, a girl stayed in the computer lab after class to get some help on a program she was trying to write.  I gave her the same treatment and she stormed off almost in tears and never returned to the lab.  In short, I was a complete and total asshole.

I'm 40 years old now and to this day I still regret it and feel (rightly) very guilty about it.  With one stupid act of elitism and ego I may have destroyed her entire career path and deprived the world of someone who might have become one of the best computing and information scientists in their field.

I *still* find myself doing this on occasion or at least approaching it and it always reminds me that I myself must lack confidence and knowledge and am simply doing this to make myself feel superior.

Every one of us didn't know the things we know before we learned them, and we *owe* our knowledge to others who have been confident and kind enough to help us and imho are obliged to do our best to pay that help forward when possible.

I'm still learning to be more mature and hope some day to be as patient and knowledgeable as others on this forum.

By the same token, going back to irc, there were those who would simply post their broken code which was clearly a homework assignment and expect the channel to fix it for them, a few even going as far as offering real cash to simply do their homework for them via PM.

My advice to anyone who gets slammed for asking for help:

Hopefully you are at least told why you are wrong, even if it's in a negative fashion.  If so, simply choose to learn from what's been said with the full confidence that if you persist, you will easily surpass those who would make you feel like you don't belong or are somehow "stupid (tm)".

We all do this, each in our own way, because we love it, and that's the most important thing.

[alxnik]

As an advanced (dare I say expert?) software engineer and beginner electronics hobbyist I think I currently live both sides of this, so this is my take...

There are people that need to be spoon-fed. I have colleagues like this, and I get in a lot of fights because I cannot focus on my work in order to help someone find something that can by found in 5 minutes by looking in the manual/google etc. However, you can never judge if someone needs to be spoon-fed from the start. This is why usually when I give advice/help, I start with some general advice without going into full detail. If the person I help uses the info well but stumbles later along the road, he/she is usually worth my time. I think in a forum this would translate in something like "your problem is because of X, search for it or get this Y great application note/datasheet/white paper".

Other than that, I think a forum is not a place to gather information, but a place to communicate. The whole thing  "this is answered before", "search the forum" etc is stupid. Information is lost in informal messages and threads that might span 10 pages or even more. Personally I have never found any useful info in this forum by searching, only by asking or using information I read casually some time before. Given that, there will be a lot of questions that will be repeated no matter what, because beginners have the same basic questions. This is a sore point in many forums and in this one too because it frustrates old members and new alike.

However this problem was solved a long time ago in the form of a wiki (editable stickies should work too). Common parts lists, best CAD tools to start with, brands of soldering irons, etc etc. Keep in mind that considering the tools, a beginner cannot judge in order to select the correct tool and sometimes we need info that cannot be found in wikipedia or vendor sites. The electronic load and linear power supply projects are very common for beginners, why not have a FAQ about the common pitfalls, variations, improvements etc? This would make the regulars happy because the will offer something of value and the beginners will have all the info in their hands.

Just my 2 cents 

[alm]

However, you can never judge if someone needs to be spoon-fed from the start.

Someone who clearly invested some effort in formulating their question, for example because they indicated solutions they tried and failed, and who clearly document their problem (eg. schematic/pictures) are unlikely to need spoon feeding. That definitely motivates me to invest more time in helping them than someone posting 'How do I hook up a LED?'

Other than that, I think a forum is not a place to gather information, but a place to communicate. The whole thing  "this is answered before", "search the forum" etc is stupid. Information is lost in informal messages and threads that might span 10 pages or even more. Personally I have never found any useful info in this forum by searching, only by asking or using information I read casually some time before.

This I find sad, and I disagree. I have actually found valuable information by searching this forum, and think that the forum archives are an important resource. For example if you're wondering if Hakko soldering stations sold by DealExtreme are genuine, you may find tear downs and discussions on this forum. If you're wondering about heating element quality between Hakko and some knock-offs, then you may find that someone took the time to compare thermal recovery between heating elements. If you're wondering about a split versus solid ground plane, then you'll find that someone built two boards and posted measurements. Some of these posters have invested a significant amount of time in those posts. It's not really fair to expect these people to repost this information every time someone new comes along.

The very loose moderation does not make this forum the most useful resource for this purpose. Threads will often stray off topic, and these are rarely split or even the title changed. This is clearly not StackOverflow. But that does not mean the archives are useless, especially if someone points you at the relevant threads. Sure, the information may be buried in a ten page thread. But if I want to know whether I'm wasting those $300 by buying that particular scope, I consider it my job to dig through that information, not to ask someone else to do it for me. The more experiences I read, the better I know what to expect. It's also often non-trivial to summarize a long thread.

However this problem was solved a long time ago in the form of a wiki (editable stickies should work too). Common parts lists, best CAD tools to start with, brands of soldering irons, etc etc.

Yes, some things could be better stored on a wiki. I don't think the EEVblog wiki ever got enough momentum and participants to really become useful. Are you volunteering your time?

[rsjsouza]

However, you can never judge if someone needs to be spoon-fed from the start.

Yes, you can with a very high degree of accuracy. Based on the verbiage of the question you can tell a large number of things, including the level of detail the answers are required - alm exposes examples of that.
All that said, if you are going to answer or not is completely up to you - I usually don't, unless I find a reply with a very good answer. If you are going to answer in a harsh way or not is also totally up to you (that is what has been mostly discussed here).

Other than that, I think a forum is not a place to gather information, but a place to communicate. The whole thing  "this is answered before", "search the forum" etc is stupid.

+1k to what alm said. A forum such as Eevblog is not only a place to communicate, but it is also intended to make the information publicly available. There are zillions of other ways to simply communicate without worrying about the sharing aspect (mailing lists, unlogged IRC channels, direct e-mail, etc.). That and the fact this forum is also searchable from Google (common search terms land on eevblog at the very first hits) make me disagree strongly with your statement. Obviously that, if you don't provide any other help with your reply (such as search the forum for "x"), then I agree it is noise.

However this problem was solved a long time ago in the form of a wiki (editable stickies should work too). Common parts lists, best CAD tools to start with, brands of soldering irons, etc etc.

Wikis are great for posting the information you mentioned, but they also require a great deal of maintenance to keep them up-to-date.

I work on both things for a living (forums and wikis) and frequently reply forum questions with wiki topics. I also create wiki topics when I sense the question is something that can be applicable in a more general sense and for a broader audience.

[alxnik]

Someone who clearly invested some effort in formulating their question, for example because they indicated solutions they tried and failed, and who clearly document their problem (eg. schematic/pictures) are unlikely to need spoon feeding. That definitely motivates me to invest more time in helping them than someone posting 'How do I hook up a LED?'

You have a point here. However knowing something very well, makes an experienced person have a "distorted" idea of what should have been done. In the software world, when I have a question I usually can formulate it exactly as needed and I will usually get a precise answer. However in electronics I get very swamped very easily and forget to do even the most basic like checking a datasheet, or check the proper section of a datasheet. It is an elementary mistake and I might get an arrogant answer for it (hasn't happened here, but I'm sure you know what I am talking about), but it just happens and has nothing to do with the attitude of the asker.

This I find sad, and I disagree. I have actually found valuable information by searching this forum, and think that the forum archives are an important resource. For example if you're wondering if Hakko soldering stations sold by DealExtreme are genuine, you may find tear downs and discussions on this forum. If you're wondering about heating element quality between Hakko and some knock-offs, then you may find that someone took the time to compare thermal recovery between heating elements. If you're wondering about a split versus solid ground plane, then you'll find that someone built two boards and posted measurements. Some of these posters have invested a significant amount of time in those posts. It's not really fair to expect these people to repost this information every time someone new comes along.

Granted, I have found precious information, I'll give you a counterexample. I have a rigol ds1052e. Hackable to 100mhz. Actually you have to read tons of posts spanning to 3 versions before my current firmware version. Does it contain the info? Yep. Do you trust the info without reading absolutely every single post? Nah. The threads themselves serve a wonderful purpose, which is the actual hacking (and I actually LOVE to read them for amusement). But I am not intersted in actually hacking it, I want it to be 100mhz and move on to other projects. Selfish? I'd say better use of our collective resources, if I don't use the time to do that I might have time to make some other project which might help the community.

(Funny thing on the above. I might even be wrong and there is very good and precise info on this, but I just can't find it. This is my point)

But if I want to know whether I'm wasting those $300 by buying that particular scope, I consider it my job to dig through that information, not to ask someone else to do it for me. The more experiences I read, the better I know what to expect. It's also often non-trivial to summarize a long thread.

Yes if you(we) are a sum of individuals. But as a community, isn't too much time wasted in this? Wouldn't be better to just not have to answer any question at all?

Yes, some things could be better stored on a wiki. I don't think the EEVblog wiki ever got enough momentum and participants to really become useful.

This is just an idea and probably not even the answer to everything. However, you don't need to build the new wikipedia. Check the OpenWRT wiki, you will get what I am talking about. Altough I haven't used it for some time, I remember finding everything I wanted fast. I hacked my router, added an sd card, new LEDs, unbricked it a couple of times via JTAG, and I didn't even have to ask a single question on the forum.

Are you volunteering your time?

Now you are just getting defensive.
Actually you are already volunteering your time by answering beginner questions and so am I (well...If I know the answer). Everybody is obviously free to use their time as they please - and I'm sorry if I sounded as if I was showing you how to use your time - but I find it much more efficient to just write a wiki than answering the same question 100 times. To answer your question, no I probably don't have enough time to be pivotal in the making of this, but I would most probably help to the extent of my knowledge (actually I would be more useful in providing hosting/administration).

One last thing...I don't want to show you how to run this place, I actually love it as it is. Nevertheless it's fun to stir things a bit.   

[alm]

You have a point here. However knowing something very well, makes an experienced person have a "distorted" idea of what should have been done.

I agree that asking the perfect question requires that you know that subject, but there's still a huge difference between something attempting to do a good job and someone not even trying. The former will miss essential details, but it will still be clear that the person invested effort in asking that question. This effort usually translates to better answers with less effort on the side of the people answering that question. Just knowing what you already tried, and that you only copied the schematic from Wikipedia but didn't read the datasheet, or attempted to use a solderless breadboard to prototype an amplifier with 1 GHz bandwidth, can be important information for solving the problem. Otherwise people helping you may also miss the trivial stuff that's stated on page 1 of the datasheet.

I have a rigol ds1052e. Hackable to 100mhz.

Yes, there are some counter examples, the DS1052E hacking is probably being the worst. And in that case it's nice if someone can give a summary. And ideally this summary is somewhere where it's easy to find (e.g. linked from the first post, or on a wiki). I'm not at all claiming that the EEVblog forum is perfect, or even good, in this regard. Usually reading the last couple of pages of a long thread gives you a decent impression of the current state, though.

Yes if you(we) are a sum of individuals. But as a community, isn't too much time wasted in this? Wouldn't be better to just not have to answer any question at all?

I don't see your point. What's wrong with the person with the problem/question investing time in getting it solved/answered? That scales much better than a smaller group of 'experts' repeatedly doing the majority of the work.

Now you are just getting defensive.

Not at all. It's just that we don't currently have an extensive EEVblog wiki, while we do have extensive forum archives. You argue in favor of a wiki for some questions (and I won't argue against that). But even if a wiki is superior, the forum is not magically going to morph into a wiki.

[alxnik]

@alm

With your last post, I get the impression that you get my point (and I get yours) so I don't want to further argue in it, I just want to summarise it a bit.

There a communities that are more focused in explicitly providing easily accesible information, the raspberry one springs up to mind which after all is backed by an organisation which wants to encourage learning. Probably the persons there have a preexisting motive in teaching rather than the device itself. Nevertheless the result is quite cool. For a beginner it is an invaluable resource and it can decrease a lot of the beginner questions. I think the magic word is "efficiency". However people are not here to work but have fun. If people are having more fun the way it is, so be it.

I decided to start participating in the forum because this is the most efficient way to improve my skills right now, and I am happy with it. However in the back of my head I will always get a bit afraid that I will get something wrong and someone will get all arrogant - at least until we all sniff each others butts.

(English is a second language to me, I hope I don't butcher it too much)

[tehmeme]

... at least until we all sniff each others butts.

 
That's a good phrase, I'll have to remember to use this in my daily life.