Sunday, December 11, 2011

Pseudo Experts or Who's the Troll

Internet has currently become the most available source of consultation and tutorials then anything else. At least, because the closest library is a couple of blocks away while the Internet is at your fingertips (wanted to say "at your desk", but it may be a laptop or a mobile device). It is hard to find someone who hasn't ever posted a question or an issue on one of the numerous forums or newsgroups. But how many of us have really got a satisfactory answer or solution? Or let me rephrase it - how many of us got a satisfactory answer without tones of off topic slops?

Just to show you an example - I was working on a Linux software project. There was a technical problem which I could not solve myself for quite a long time. I decided to post that issue to one of the professional communities. It was a proprietary project, so I could not reveal much details, but I tried to give an as much idea as possible about the problem and describe the needed solution as good as I could without violating the NDA (it was about detection of process spawn from (preferably) userspace).

It was quite funny to find that others know better what I need in deed (but what they think I need, does not fit the range of acceptable solutions). Others thought that they cannot provide me with purely technical information unless they know the exact details of why I need that.

The problem is, that most of the forums are full of totally useless information, which mainly consists in desire of so-called experts to show they "high IQ" and "proficiency". This brings me to a conclusion, that quite a huge part of those seeking for information or advice, simply do not get what they need. They some times are mistakenly called trolls. But who's the real troll in this case?...

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