RTFM is always a good strategy, the manual/wiki/source code will almost always have more info than a comment can reasonably contain.
Comment on The best thing *you* can do for the fediverse is *just be kind*
Alaknar@lemm.ee 1 week ago
I’ll add: “be supportive and helpful if you can, and just shut up if you can’t”.
Fediverse is sometimes suffering from the same kind of people that Linux has - “oh you have a problem? Well, here’s the GitHub repo and a project Wiki, figure it out”.
desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
Alaknar@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Yeah, I can clearly see the 40 year old finance analyst doing a deep-dive on the intricacies of the Linux Kernel because he can’t connect his WiFi.
This is exactly what I mean. You people are so disconnected from reality you’re doing more harm than good to your own cause.
jhymesba@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I utterly disagree. For most people, the manual, wiki, or source code is undecipherable gibberish. For many others, it’s an investment of time they may or may not have. Even I, a seasoned tech vet, sometimes just want to have something work without having to sit down for hours to make it work. If I have a problem, I reach out to the community to see if someone else has had the problem I have had so I can benefit from their hours of labour to find the thing that fixes the problem. Your RTFM is just noise to their signal, which I could definitely do without. Respectfully, in the theme of the post we’re replying to. ;)
Cris_Color@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yeah, if I don’t have the answer I usually just stop in to say I hope someone more knowledgeable can chime in and wish them luck.
That way the post at least gets a little engagement for visibility. But the “rtfm” attitude, while understandable, can be really miserable to be met with when you’re out of your depth doing your best to learn about something new and need some help from another actual human.
We all begrudge the automated phone systems that try to reduce the need for human beings by helping people with simple problems, and that approach to helping people exists for good reason but it does feel like sometimes we’re too eager to leave people to figure things out by themselves just because it’s a lot of work to actually help them, human to human. None of us enjoy being treated that way when we need help.