Hiding in the Shadow of Intellect
25 Jan 2018From the dawn of communication, mannerisms have dictated the ways we interact with one another. The exchange of ideas and messages maintained a funadmental courtesy with the way it was delivered. Much of these non-verbal methods of communication carried concepts like respect and temperment that could be received, creating a better environment for a message to be understood. With the utilization of technology, communication has gotten much faster and easier but at the expense of the etiquettes normally encasing them. As the culture of mass communication evolved over time, mannerisms and expectations changed accordingly.
Through the freedoms of the internet; these mass communications organized into different sectors based on target demographics. Forums like “Stack Overflow” provide a reliable source of information for programmers and developers alike. As mentioned, with this abundant amount of information comes a “netiquette” to efficiently and productively conduct oneself to maintain the usability of the source. Eric Raymond, author of “How to Ask Questions the Smart Way”, formalizes the standard expectations of the open marketplace, how to maximize the forum inquiry experience, and control excessive saturation of repeated topics. Simple efforts can keep the atmosphere positive and constructive without giving temptation to agitate a dispute.
Link 1 below provides an example of a well constructed posting to Stack Overflow. In his post, he is concise with the information he is seeking, sites research he as already done, and overall maintains a nonagressive tone with word choice. The community reciprocates positively with open discussion and contribution to the sites rating system of stars.
The second link provides the contrary to the mannerisms exercised by the first link. The user provided questions difficult to follow with example code with no definitions of what it’s suppose to do. This caused confusion in the discussion thread with commenters struggling to find the solution, some being voted negatively by other commenters. The solution to the questions ended up resulting in the site administrator closing the thread, accomplishing nothing but wasting the efforts of those stiving to assist. It is this kind of anarchy that can result due to violations of the netiquette and highlights the importance of asking smart questions.
Understanding and following the now-said rules of the marketplace will provide a powerful asset toward expanding the knowledge we all strive for. Throughout ones journey to seek enlightenment, hide in the shadow of intellect to probe others for answers to the simplest of questions with respect to the fundamental processes to achieve it.
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