RTFM - Or in other words, go away
2009-08-22 12:32:12
I stumbled across a very brief posting on the Daniweb PHP forum earlier today, entitled Do any members asking questions RTFM. User Dsiemab appears to be implying from this post that not enough people are "reading the friendly manual" before posting their questions (N.B. I think the actual meaning of the initialism is not that polite).
I disagree with this assessment; many people will happily munch through an entire manual until they have assimilated every morsel of knowledge. But this is not for everyone. And nor should it be.
Forums such as Daniweb are supposed to be there to help people. They are a place for people with very specific questions/problems to quickly find advice. Many of these people are novices, who simply lack the experience to read themselves out of trouble.
For these people, turning to the benevolent contributors of these online forums is the only option.
Could you imagine someone turning to their solicitor about an impending court case, only to be told to "Read the **** Government Legislation"?
The PHP online manual, just like a Parliamentary Act, is a piece of documentation that works brilliantly for the experts. It is structured well. It uses technical language. It relies upon the reader's prerequisite knowledge.
Perhaps a better approach than quoting yet another overused web-based initialism would be to say to the forum user, "Here is the manual, this is the page with your answer. Please let me know if you need more assistance."
Maybe HITMTITPWYAPLMKIYNMA is just too many initials to type.
I disagree with this assessment; many people will happily munch through an entire manual until they have assimilated every morsel of knowledge. But this is not for everyone. And nor should it be.
Forums such as Daniweb are supposed to be there to help people. They are a place for people with very specific questions/problems to quickly find advice. Many of these people are novices, who simply lack the experience to read themselves out of trouble.
For these people, turning to the benevolent contributors of these online forums is the only option.
Could you imagine someone turning to their solicitor about an impending court case, only to be told to "Read the **** Government Legislation"?
The PHP online manual, just like a Parliamentary Act, is a piece of documentation that works brilliantly for the experts. It is structured well. It uses technical language. It relies upon the reader's prerequisite knowledge.
Perhaps a better approach than quoting yet another overused web-based initialism would be to say to the forum user, "Here is the manual, this is the page with your answer. Please let me know if you need more assistance."
Maybe HITMTITPWYAPLMKIYNMA is just too many initials to type.