I didn't know this was a Rom support forum

[GGKoul]

People that don't understand how to extract a file or try to run a game on a PII 350mhz and then complain why it's not running... should step away from their computers and just walk away.  You just don't get it...

BTW: I haven't seen a "Why isn't Golden Tee 2005" in mame question lately.

[DrewKaree]

I can post the Golden Tee question, if you like, although I don't really care, and understand what the answer will be before posting the question.

It's not a matter of them not "getting it" or having to "walk away".  It simply has to do with the ultimate stereotype guys have going against them. 

It has to do with RTFM and people here wanting to help others.  On the one hand, it's a blessing, on the other hand, there aren't enough folks nice enough to do the HowardCasto thing and TELL THEM to RTFM.  I say "nice enough" to tell them that, because they'll learn SO much more by RTFM that may help them avoid problems/questions in the future.

I appreciate the helpfulness of the folks here, although I RTFM always (while my wife laughs in the background because "it's just a _________ , why are you reading the manual?") and usually end up being able to help myself, the occasional brain fart happens.  The "simple" stuff needs to be pointed back to the manual, but many a noob can thank their lucky stars they found this site to help 'em out 

[GGKoul]

Yes, but the problem is not enough people RTFM. 

[Sephroth57]

GG, dont you have hockey to be playing or something? 

[GGKoul]

GG, dont you have hockey to be playing or something?

[DrewKaree]

You got yer guys mixed up there.   

I do.

He may. 

[Gunstar Hero]

BOOM!

Got told!

 

[Magnet_Eye]

People that don't understand how to extract a file or try to run a game on a PII 350mhz and then complain why it's not running... should step away from their computers and just walk away.  You just don't get it...

BTW: I haven't seen a "Why isn't Golden Tee 2005" in mame question lately.

Ok, so you are complaining about people that post topics that are useless or ones they shouldn't be posting in this forum at all....yet you yourself are posting a topic that doesn't have to do with a Software issue... uh.... 

IMO this should be a rant in the Everything Else forum. 

[Sephroth57]

ilove your icon 

[Goz]

I too like the set... err I mean your avatar

[GGKoul]

There's just a lot of NEWBIE questions appearing in the Software Forum lately.

[the3eyedblindman]

who cares....if people have questions, let them ask..I dont mind. 

[DrewKaree]

who cares....if people have questions, let them ask..I dont mind. 

You might want to change your screen name to "Master Of The Obvious" 

[the3eyedblindman]

I like the3eyedblindman 

[the3eyedblindman]

"DrewKaree"  is kind of boring though.

[Goz]

I like the3eyedblindman 

It's amazing how similar it is to subzero23

 

-Goz

[DrewKaree]

"DrewKaree"  is kind of boring though.

Ouch.  You're killing me.  Seriously.   

This would be the place to put a witty comeback, but then I'd have to waste more time explaining it to ya.


Using pictures 


Goz, I was thinking it was more akin to blueoakleyz, mahsef.

[GGKoul]

Goz, I was thinking it was more akin to blueoakleyz, mahsef.

Lets see what path he chooses

[Howard_Casto]

Gotta agree with Drew on this one. 

It's not a matter of answering an occasional dumb question, it's a matter of the same people asking several dumb questions.  Why do they do that?  Because you people think you are being "helpful" by hand feeding them obvious answers. 

Ever heard the expression, "Give a man a fish he will eat for a day, teach a man how to fish he will never go hungry." ??

If you don't tell them to rtfm and be stern about it, they'll flood the board with newbie question after newbie question, never reading the manual, and thus never really learning anything. 

And regardless of how you feel about newbie questions, this isn't the proper place to get help with mame.  The mameworld fourms (the official forums of the mame project) are.  The same thing can be applied to almost every other emulator out there.  This forum's members consist of emulator users not emulator developers.  I mean honestly, doesn't it make more sense to ask your question about an emualtor in a forum where the people who wrote the emulator will actually see it???  It's just common sense to me, but apparently some people around here don't have any.

I was here when this board began.  The software forum was and still is, intended for questions regarding:

Software used to interface to arcade controls.

Arcade-specific front ends and utilities. 

Getting an emulator to properly interface with said controls or applications. 



There are a thousand emulator tech support forums, but only one byoac software forum, which is used for arcade cabinet related questions.

With that being said... an occasional off-beat question isn't a big deal, but when the ratio of on-topic to off-topic posts is as skewed as it is now, it tends to get annoying.  You guys can easily detect when the ratio is out of balance.  I'm like one of those Canary's in a coal mine, except when the air gets bad, I get cranky. 

Also  "What is your favorite game?", "What is the name of this game?" and "A list of games with ____ types of controls" should be in the everything else forum as they have absolutely nothing to do with software tech support.

With that being said, this really should have been in the everything else forum, except the newbies don't go there so they'd never see it.   

[DrewKaree]

Ever heard the expression, "Give a man a fish he will eat for a day, teach a man how to fish he will never go hungry." ??

I like my version better.

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day.  Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

I don't wanna figure out which should be done to whom. 

[Minwah]

I was here when this board began.  The software forum was and still is, intended for questions regarding:

Software used to interface to arcade controls.

Arcade-specific front ends and utilities. 

Getting an emulator to properly interface with said controls or applications. 

Perhaps the title on the 'entrance' page should be changed...it says 'Front ends, juke boxes, emulator help, etc... ' - which could be interpreted in a no. of ways.  In fairness to the newbs, how do they know 'emulator help' means 'Getting an emulator to properly interface with said controls or applications' and not 'anything related to emulator software'?

Also, jukeboxes have their own forum now.

[Howard_Casto]

I agree.  Saint likes to keep things more passive though.  And I can really understand why.  Until recently, these types of posts were pretty occasional and as I said before, once in a while it's no big deal.  Next time I talk to him I'll ask him about it and see what he says, but as always it's his board and we'll have to respect his decision. 

[Minwah]

Perhaps in addition, we could make a sticky with links directly to emulators / FE's / apps own message boards where available.  As you say questions are better directed there when possible.

I know MAMEWAH has a lot of questions here, and it has it's own (well shared with AOS) board - it would help me out if people used that board more as I see the same questions on both boards all the time.  I know some people aren't registered at MameWorld, but they should be - it's cool

[SirPeale]

I don't mind a certain amount of hand holding (esp. on some more difficult things) but seriously, this hobby requires a bit of PC knowledge.  You should take it on yourself to learn it.

[GGKoul]

And regardless of how you feel about newbie questions, this isn't the proper place to get help with mame.

[GGKoul]

I don't mind a certain amount of hand holding (esp. on some more difficult things) but seriously, this hobby requires a bit of PC knowledge.

[Minwah]

Exactly!!  The BYOAC forum is for Building Your Own Arcade Controls and the various software & hardware questions that go along with Building Your Own Arcade Controls. 

You have to admit there are some questions which come up which shouldn't.  Even at the EmuAdvice board at MameWorld, there are very few 'basic' questions nowadays thanks to the 'read the faq, docs & EasyEmu' policy there.

www.mameworld.net/easyemu is excellent, and we should probably point people there more often.

[spocktwin]

Just my two cents....as a long time lurker who read till my eyeballs fell out it was quite a while until I asked some (what I admit now) were some lame questions if I had read deeper into some of the forums.

[DrewKaree]

As the quote about the fish remember you may need to hold the hand to get them to the lake, teaching them to fish at the desert will still leave them hungry

EXCELLENT point I never considered, and HILARIOUS to boot!  Good stuff, that.

When pointing someone to "TFM", I'll try to remember to tell them WHERE "TFM" is.  Thank you! 

[the3eyedblindman]

why cant we all just get along? 

[DrewKaree]

Because the manual/readme was put together to give a person enough information to get to the point of usefulness.  Skipping it makes it seem as if that person can't be bothered to put the time in that we have, or somehow that person's time is somehow more valuable so that they can't be bothered to do simple homework that we thought to be vital, hence the knowledge to answer that person's question.

When questions are posed that are clearly obvious in showing that a person hasn't done the basic homework, it's akin to taking advantage of the generosity of people to do your work for that person.  An example would be having someone write a term paper for you, and you taking the credit for the "A" that you'd get. 

Not only is that person poorly equipped to deal with potential future problems, they slow down possible solutions to more IMPORTANT problems that the kind people being asked to spoon-feed those answers might be working on.  That would better benefit the community as a whole, rather than taking time out of their busy schedule to help answer something that is answered in the manual/readme.

I'd rather Howard be working on some swank new feature for his FE that, while not benefitting me because I don't use it, would still benefit a dozen new people who were searching for a FE that had that "BINGO, THAT'S IT!" feature than for him to waste his time answering questions about basic ROM setup that's in the MAME readme or is better answered on the MAME forums.

Does that work for you?  It has nothing to do with "getting along", it has to do with the simple expectations that you've at least put in the time on the basics.  Again I say - if it's too much to ask you to do the basics, then it's too much for YOU to ask us to hold your hand.  Mommy doesn't post here.

[spocktwin]

  "Does that work for you?  It has nothing to do with "getting along", it has to do with the simple expectations that you've at least put in the time on the basics.  Again I say - if it's too much to ask you to do the basics, then it's too much for YOU to ask us to hold your hand.  Mommy doesn't post here. "
     Nicely put Drew I think that says it all......nuff said

[Magnet_Eye]

I have said this a hundred times, but...Someone needs to build a SEARCHABLE KNOWLEDGE BASE for this site! In an FAQ style, like you would find at say a hardware or software site. This would really be helpful for n00bs.

Or at least a "Commonly Asked Questions" part for this forum. 

[Howard_Casto]

I have said this a hundred times, but...Someone needs to build a SEARCHABLE KNOWLEDGE BASE for this site! In an FAQ style, like you would find at say a hardware or software site. This would really be helpful for n00bs.

Or at least a "Commonly Asked Questions" part for this forum.

[Magnet_Eye]

we have several:

www.mame.net
www.oscarcontrols.com/lazarus
www.mameworld.net
www.mameworld.net/easyemu

the stickys at the top of this forum

not to mention this very forum if you actually use the search function (properly) before you ask a question

and of course good old www.google.com

if a question was ever been asked on the internet, then google or one of these other sources will find it. 

If people aren't willing to rtfm, what makes you think they'll be willing to read another, less specific, doc?

I know we have all those. but we need something more "Idioth Proof" if you know what I mean...it would save us these types of discussions IMO.

[GGKoul]

The ideal way is to limited the posts or make some reading mandatory when someone joins the forum.

[Goz]

Maybe when a person registers, they could recieve a FAQ in the form of a PDF, word doc, etc... That way searching is on their machine and hence no excuse of cant find it in the thousands of posts.

[DrewKaree]

we need something more "Idioth Proof"

Those who believe in the concept of making something Idiot Proof haven't run across a determined Idiot.

[DrewKaree]

Spocktwin, I took your advice, and led him out of the desert over to the lake......if, after putting the rod in his hands, he refuses to cast, I may have to push him into the lake 

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=29553.new#new

THAT link will point you to a CLASSIC example of what this thread is referring to, as well as a classLESS example of how to become an ingrate to the forum.

[GGKoul]

we need something more "Idioth Proof"

Those who believe in the concept of making something Idiot Proof haven't run across a determined Idiot.

I've got to remember that one! 

That's just as good as...

In the land of the Goats, the Goat F**ker is King!