If you honestly do not understand, please find someone who will explain to you how insulting and inappropriate your reply was. I tried to formulate an explanation, but I had trouble phrasing it politely enough that it was worth posting.
Well, you have mellowed since you first got here.
I hope he will stay too as I like his ‘AddOhms’ you tube channel as well and @baldengineer is a great ambassador for Kicad he shares his love of the software with over 200k subscribers and understand why he’s upset. Maybe a cultural thing ? dunno…
I completely understand why he was upset: he spent time making a post that was trying to help another user, and got told “don’t post if you don’t know the best answer”.
If not posting if you don’t know the best answer is not allowed, many people should get banned
That said, I do think deleting one’s account over this is a bit of an extreme reaction.
No. 100 times no! He didn’t got told: “don’t post”.
When he said that he knew that there is a better way
he got told: “If you know there is a better way, then it’s better to not post the other way.”
So not the imperative/prohibitive mode to not post at all.
But only information that it is better to not write worse solutions if you know there are better one.
May be it is a problem with my English, but for me it doesn’t mean:
“don’t post if you don’t know the best answer”.
For me it has really nothing to do with posting when don’t knowing the best answer.
When don’t knowing the best answer you of course can post suggesting the best solution you know.
For me the heart of the statement lies in the condition at the beginning of the sentence (“If you know there is a better way”). In such case (and only in such case) it is better (only better! - not forbidden) to not describe the worse solution.
Do the native English speakers understand differently logic of this construction?
And I agree with that sentence.
Describing the worse way if you know that there is better way (have in mind this condition!) you can lead the questioner down the wrong path.
The problem comes down to the answer to the question: Is it better to be directed down the wrong path or not to be given such direction?
Answer may not always be unequivocal (I took this word from dictionary) but anyone who thinks it is better to not be directed the wrong path should conclude that the sentence what was the beginning of this story is simply true.
I am here with @paulvdh as I also don’t understand why sentence that for me is 100% true can provoke such a strong reaction.
I am trying to assume that this sentence can be understood differently but can’t find such a way of understanding it.
Basically, @paulvdh did what is known as “junior modding.” He shouldn’t be telling other posters what content they can or can not post. It was rude and disrespectful.
I feel like people are reading ‘it can’t be written’ when paulvdh writes ‘it is better not to write it’.
For me this is the fundamental difference changing the tone of the entire statement. For others not?
Are these two phrases understood more or less the same in English?
I could suppose that paulvdh see between them the same fundamental difference as me.
And as I have written in post 7:
I didn’t take it as rude, but as a hint to take into account that my suggestion might not be good for a beginner.
I agree. …And I wonder his reason why. I don’t expect to ever learn, and it does not seem like anything he contributed would be deemed to be regrettable.
Hi, Piotr
I think that answering with the best that you know can help a great discussion, even though you (or I) do not have the best answer. It is not as simple as one person has all the questions and another has all the answers. I might have a related answer along with a question. It promotes discussion, and many participants can learn…
I generally agree with it, but here the exact question is a little different:
What is better to do (not what you should do but what is better to do) if you know that there is a better solution but you don’t remember details. Is it better to suggest your worse solution or is it better to mention the better one with information that you can’t tell details.
I think people can have here 2 opposite answers but paulvdh thinks that better is to not write the worse solution and (in my opinion) he simply said that.
It seems to me that @baldengineer acted in good faith on that other thread, and simply forgot to add the caveat that there might be a better way.
In general there is always the risk that the replies we give - trying to be helpful - aren’t actually correct, even though we sincerely believe them to be. None of us know everything, all of us make mistakes. Should the risk of giving the wrong solution stop us from posting? Of course not; logically, nobody would post anything.
All we can realistically ask is that people be reasonably confident that their reply will be helpful, and that they freely admit when their answer might not be optimal.
I think on that other thread @paulvdh was a little too unkind to @baldengineer. And @baldengineer seems to have reacted emotionally to paulvdh’s slight, rather than rationally.
I want @baldengineer to stick around, I really do. I hope he will remember to add a caveat to any suggestions he makes if he suspects there might be a better way. And I hope @paulvdh will gently point out any mistakes people make, and refrain from commenting on their right to post.
Me too, he is always trying to help where he can, he can’t do that if he isn’t here . . . I appreciate his efforts.
No! (says me, contradicting my own below comments by singling out another member )
Gentle, or not so gentle, criticism is poor forum etiquette.
Few members have any idea of the real personalities of other members. It is far too easy to read a comment as a personal attack if that comment is aimed directly at another member.
If someone absolutely must criticize another member, do it in private via the message system. The moderators have access to the message system, so if there is a real problem, the moderators can deal with it.
It is far better to just ignore a comment and reply in the form of “This alternate method … works well”
I cannot agree. I think it is essential to point out incorrect information right there in the thread. Highlighting errors is not the same as criticising the author of them.
I feel strongly about this because this forum is a wonderful archive of knowledge that is available to anyone who comes along seeking a solution to their KiCAD questions. For it to work we must be permanently vigilant against misinformation finding its way into the record. We owe that to the people who come along after us, and who will, in turn, make their own contributions.
That is why I think it is our duty to point out mistakes and misinformation. And in doing so we must be polite and gentle, emphasising that it is not a criticism of the poster, but merely a mistake in what they posted.
Thanks for your comment, and I respect your view.
I believe community cohesion comes first.
Without cohesion there is no community
If someone is looking for an answer to a problem and several are given, that person can decide by trial or maybe even as a last resort, RTFM
I have also noticed on occasions that if someone supplies an incorrect answer, and a correct answer follows, that incorrect answer will often be deleted by its poster so there is no personal loss of credibility.
Can we agree to disagree?
Why, of course! This would be a dull old place if we all thought the same.
And is it rude to say someone: “if you know there is a better solution, it would be better not to describe the worse one”?
How to say it politely?
Yes, I think it can be rude, depending on how it is worded. It’s also a viewpoint that I disagree with. “Worse” solutions are fine to describe if they aren’t actively harmful.