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.
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.
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.
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.
“Worded” - it is why I asked: “How to say it politely?”
In speaking you hear if someone says something rude or politely.
In writing it is much harder to differ expression and may be practically not possible in not your natural language like lot of us (including paulvdh, I think) here.
What I’m most surprise here is such a strong baldengineer reaction.
In my opinion if you are not sure you should not assume rude.
Here’s my take on it and I’m English, I would not have been happy either, to me it would have been like getting told off at school except were not kids and no wonder he blew up. Had it been face to face a swift ’ f^^^k off ’ would have ended the matter but we are all grown ups here and that would have been disgraceful, so being a gentleman and an engineer he did, in his eyes, the next best thing and ’ f^^^^d off ’ It’s kinda funny that only the other day we discussed only speaking English here and now we are discussing its nuances. As I said earlier in the thread “It will be a loss” but at the end of the day it’s for @baldengineer to decide his role on the forum.
Why say anything? He already pointed out that someone else might have a better solution. Telling him that he shouldn’t have offered his help is insulting.
More than that, it’s not your place to pass judgment on someone else’s honest attempt to offer help.
Perhaps it would be best if those who cannot understand basic courtesy and politeness not be placed in positions of trust and responsibility, such as being a moderator?
The simplest solution that I didn’t think of when I was thinking about it.
To be honest, I only read that statement once.
Not remembering its content meant that I read paulvdh statement a little differently than I should have.
I don’t know why I was only fixated on the content and not on the purpose of the statement at all.
This again comes down to the option of not speaking when you can remain silent, which I forgot about when I tried to analyze the exact content of the statement itself.
Thanks.
Now I see that I was wrong to defend that statement.
The issue remains that I really thought that the best method for the power input pin is to not run ERC and few times was told to not say that
In V5, I don’t think it was possible to block individual ERC tests. Now I guess you can, so there is another and better option.
Being told not to say that is wrong. It is an alternative, one that some may use.
Like you, @Piotr, I never use ERC.
I commented late in that thread, after the problem occurred, when I finally re-read the entire thread, that the OP was using 7.0.9, so the Ctrl + E could not work because that function was not available 'till 8.
Maybe the baldengineer was the only correct reply given
I am still in V7 (7.0.11) and I remember that I learned the "Edit Pad as Graphic Shapes - Ctrl+E) when beginning using V7. I don’t know if it was also in V6 as I used V6 for very short period. When V6 came I found that I have to change my working PC from Win7 to Win10 and it took me more than half year.
I don’t like throwing away things that simply work (I work at PC not connected to Internet so Win7 being not supported is generally not a problem).
If not new functionality was added to Ctrl+E than it certainly is in 7.0.9.
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