Hi all,

Darrel, I am with you 100%, this forum is a haven, compared to the typical egotistical flame war, high-tech, forums.
This atmosphere has been very accepting to the new-bie in PIC and / or electronics.

Lately the tone of “help” has had a slight turn to the “dark-side”.
This “bend” is not pleasant, even to the gurus, and is downright discouraging to a timid “first timer”.
I feel that the “fun rating” has fallen from a full 10 to a 4, because of this.
The quality has taken a giant hit. This takes away from the “joy of PICBASIC”.

Anything we HAVE to do to get the previous harmony would be worth the price IMO.
But the key words are “HAVE to do”.
Maybe we could try the same thing in increments, a step at a time.
We have tried many ways to hint, post, PM, email, etc., (as has been stated).

Each time I see a discouraging post to a new-bie, I try to post a helpful one right after it.
I know this is your method too. Except, I have no useful knowledge to add, 90% of the time.
So I am powerless to help.

The psychological problem seems to be:
The person with a “thick skin”, does not see what the problem is, with a hurtful post.
If they got that “snappy” answer, their thick skin would insulate them from even mild discomfort.
They would only be happy with the information part of the answer, not bothered by the “mean” part.
So this type of person sees nothing wrong, with any post that has a helpful aspect to it.

The rest of the problem is:
The same “thick skinned” person, does not recognize hints, posts, PMs, emails, etc..
These “requests” are ignored as inconsequential, trivial, “under the radar”, crap, not even noticed.
We have all seen the “come-on STOP IT” posts after a “flippant” valueless “put-down” post.
But, I don’t think the “thick skinned” type of person, even notices that, it comes out of pain, from many members.

Maybe, your “too ambitious” attempt at correcting is “a step too far” in the correct direction.
It seems that an “all or nothing” showdown has been discouraged. That is good IMO.
Remember, the type of postings we are talking about here, are NOT all bad.
Most are an attempt to be helpful, with a dash of unneeded pain thrown in.
If we could stop the unneeded pain and the obstructive part of the posts, the remainder is very useful.
The people posting answers, really want to help. They just have a prickly way about their style.

I am the first one to say RTFM, RTFD, explain the code, show the schematic. But, the style or method of making the new-bie, “pull their own weight”, is what we have to look at.

Let’s see if your well meaning effort, has been enough, to alert us that, the majority of people on this forum, want it to be an upbeat, friendly place to ask questions.

Only my opinion,
-Adam-