This is by far the best resource on the 'net for IM, even WH IM. The community here is awesome... mostly. Of course, there's PLENTY of morons who chime in on every good thread with utterly useless drivel or even lengthy posts espousing flat-out uninformed opinions that do a lot of damage to those of us just trying to learn.
Fortunately, once you read enough, the truth starts to come out, but the problem there is that there are so many pointless posts that it literally takes days to even start to get a grasp of some of the more important concepts. And I'm speaking as a very experienced developer who already knows about all the underlying technologies.
I joined a month ago and I have probably spent about a fifth of my waking hours since then reading non-stop and there's just so much to sift through, I've still got more questions than answers. (OK, well that may not be fair, but I still feel that I'm on the low end of the learning curve, despite I may have read a few books worth of text.)
Before I get too carried away complaining, let me remember to once again stress that BHW is *f'in awesome*!!!! Hands-down the best resource I have seen, and the people who know what they're talking about and bother to put in the time writing tons of helpful posts are to be thanked endlessly.
OK, so back to my only real gripe with BHW - I tend to try to read, read, read, read until I have a good understanding, then start to participate, dip my toes in the water... but I've noticed that certain parts of the forums are off limits to new accounts. This makes total sense, and I commend the mods for creating these kinds of rules -- that preserves the integrity of BHW to a great extent, I'm sure.
However, as I started to wonder how I was going to start to build enough posts to get to the point where my account was less restricted, all I could think of was to start posting stupid "ataboy" or "that's stupid" posts like everyone else does. I'm NEW to this so I don't yet have much to add to the community, and I'd actually prefer to just ask a couple focused questions and spend the rest of my time reading. And really, the questions I have are all answered SOMEWHERE here already - it's just a matter of finding them.
So I'm back to the fact that mostly I just want to read, but in order to post in some places, I have to post 50 more times before that. But I don't have THAT much to add yet and I don't want to keep polluting the good threads with the drivel that there's already far far too much of.
My possibly naive solution? New accounts should be restricted even harder, so that they are only allowed to post in the introductions and lounge forums or something like that. But then that's probably why this here lounge seems to be filled with JV offers because new members can't post on the JV forum. *sigh*
It's also frustrating to see people asking to be spoonfed, or asking how to install WP on otherwise unrelated threads. I guess it's not really that easy to get those people to stop doing dumb stuff like that, but it really increases the time it takes to read BHW. Maybe that's why you see people posting on page 5 of a thread things that clearly indicate they haven't read the previous 4 pages. Am I the only one who actually reads all the posts?
OK, must finish off with another big THANK YOU to the BHW community. You all rock! It may take a while, but I'm learning a lot!
PS - As I now see that posting in places like the lounge don't actually increase one's post count, I guess my suggestion won't work. I understand the logic behind a policy like that, too, but do y'all understand that the result of that policy is very clearly that you'll generate tons of useless posts in the more "important" forums? I see you threaten to ban accounts that spam too many meaningless posts as such, but the reality is there are endless amounts of drivel that, while is nominally on topic, is definitely just polluting otherwise excellent content. I'm certain that that's because you've got plenty of people who need to "unlock" or upgrade their accounts and see no other way than to do that..... man, it's really a BIG bummer for people like me trying to actually spend a lot of time here reading and learning
Fortunately, once you read enough, the truth starts to come out, but the problem there is that there are so many pointless posts that it literally takes days to even start to get a grasp of some of the more important concepts. And I'm speaking as a very experienced developer who already knows about all the underlying technologies.
I joined a month ago and I have probably spent about a fifth of my waking hours since then reading non-stop and there's just so much to sift through, I've still got more questions than answers. (OK, well that may not be fair, but I still feel that I'm on the low end of the learning curve, despite I may have read a few books worth of text.)
Before I get too carried away complaining, let me remember to once again stress that BHW is *f'in awesome*!!!! Hands-down the best resource I have seen, and the people who know what they're talking about and bother to put in the time writing tons of helpful posts are to be thanked endlessly.
OK, so back to my only real gripe with BHW - I tend to try to read, read, read, read until I have a good understanding, then start to participate, dip my toes in the water... but I've noticed that certain parts of the forums are off limits to new accounts. This makes total sense, and I commend the mods for creating these kinds of rules -- that preserves the integrity of BHW to a great extent, I'm sure.
However, as I started to wonder how I was going to start to build enough posts to get to the point where my account was less restricted, all I could think of was to start posting stupid "ataboy" or "that's stupid" posts like everyone else does. I'm NEW to this so I don't yet have much to add to the community, and I'd actually prefer to just ask a couple focused questions and spend the rest of my time reading. And really, the questions I have are all answered SOMEWHERE here already - it's just a matter of finding them.
So I'm back to the fact that mostly I just want to read, but in order to post in some places, I have to post 50 more times before that. But I don't have THAT much to add yet and I don't want to keep polluting the good threads with the drivel that there's already far far too much of.
My possibly naive solution? New accounts should be restricted even harder, so that they are only allowed to post in the introductions and lounge forums or something like that. But then that's probably why this here lounge seems to be filled with JV offers because new members can't post on the JV forum. *sigh*
It's also frustrating to see people asking to be spoonfed, or asking how to install WP on otherwise unrelated threads. I guess it's not really that easy to get those people to stop doing dumb stuff like that, but it really increases the time it takes to read BHW. Maybe that's why you see people posting on page 5 of a thread things that clearly indicate they haven't read the previous 4 pages. Am I the only one who actually reads all the posts?
OK, must finish off with another big THANK YOU to the BHW community. You all rock! It may take a while, but I'm learning a lot!
PS - As I now see that posting in places like the lounge don't actually increase one's post count, I guess my suggestion won't work. I understand the logic behind a policy like that, too, but do y'all understand that the result of that policy is very clearly that you'll generate tons of useless posts in the more "important" forums? I see you threaten to ban accounts that spam too many meaningless posts as such, but the reality is there are endless amounts of drivel that, while is nominally on topic, is definitely just polluting otherwise excellent content. I'm certain that that's because you've got plenty of people who need to "unlock" or upgrade their accounts and see no other way than to do that..... man, it's really a BIG bummer for people like me trying to actually spend a lot of time here reading and learning
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