There’s an effing manual or How to Play Wind Instruments

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I blocked a user today after following his posts for a few weeks. Most of the answers he is seeking are easily found in the manual. Most of his other questions are related to his workflow “issues” that are clearly obstacles a of his own making.

I’m always happy to help with obscure and difficult to grasp DP/MOTU issues. I have zero tolerance for laziness and baby sitting, especially when the answers are easily found by searching the pdf manual.

[Phil O]

MLC, I certainly understand your frustration, but I must admit that sometimes I just can't find what I need in the effing manual. Most of the time it's because I'm searching for the wrong effing term. Perhaps I'm having a tempo related problem and I never thought to look under Conductor Track. You get the idea. I'm not disagreeing with you, just trying to give whoever the eff it was the benefit of the doubt.

Sometimes if I think a poster is just being lazy, I'll simply say, "Search Conductor Track in the manual." Or sometimes I'll just ignore the effing post!

Phil

[Phil O]

I guess I should have read some of your other post first. Now I know who you are talking about. Mmm, lots of very, very basic questions. Best to just not respond, I guess. Or maybe politely suggest an investment of time reading the manual. In this case, a large investment of time.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I get all that Phil. It appears that it’s easier to ask here in some instances, which I equate to laziness or perhaps a need for attention. Start and Stop commands are so basic and easily found. That was the last straw for me. As you might have noticed, most of my posts are responses to answer questions- even simple ones. When a pattern of laziness emerges I call it out. In “the old days” I would suspect a pirate. There’s no excuse for not learning by simply hitting the search feature of a pdf. How much easier does it need to be? I’ll waste no time on such folks.

[Tritonemusic]

[Phil O]

Yeah, I hear ya, Mike. I read a post yesterday by someone else that was WAY too basic for anyone attempting to record music - on any device or with any software. I thought, this guy will never learn to use DP. It's doubtful that he'll ever learn how to plug in a microphone. I know that sounds cold, but his questions just rubbed me the wrong way. And, it sounded like this was his first stop, not doing any research at all on basic recording and blaming DP for being so difficult. So, I hear ya.

Phil

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Even in a situation like that, Phil, I’ll try to direct a member to resource. It’s the teacher in me. Bit that same teacher has seen students who always try to get others to do the leg work for them. That just doesn’t fly with me.

[stubbsonic]

I disagree with blocking someone for asking lots of basic questions.

Sometimes those threads start out basic, and end up with some useful bits being discussed.

In the case of recent posts, the conversation could be redirected to the resources that are available (manual, tutorial vids, MotuNation threads, etc.).

You can assume it is laziness, but that might just be your own biases. It could be inexperience, youth, language differences, learning differences, a kind of "fussiness" about how software should work, and perhaps an assumption that the manual won't be helpful (even though, MOTU does have some excellent documentation). Unfortunately, even the best documentation can't predict what people will search for in their quest for answers.

As Phil O suggests, it might be better to just ignore those posts if they get on your nerve.

I read the subject, and if I have something of value to offer, I do. I'm not worried about "enabling" some "learned helplessness". I just know that I have had to ask questions in contexts that are not my area of expertise and always appreciate patient guidance.

[daniel.sneed]

Well... Many times, I've been asked for help from people, not very involved in things they are asking about.
In such cases, my behaviour turns around asking them to do a simple, but effective, task.
9 of 10, I never hear from them anymore.
With the 1 who really does the simple task, I'll spend some reasonable time, though.

[cuttime]

9 of 10, I never hear from them anymore.

This is what taxes my patience, as it wastes everyone's time.

[stubbsonic]

Sometimes, (though I admit it might be rare), the advice given to person A, might be read by persons X, Y, and Z who stumble upon the forum in a search for answers.

When they see people being treated dismissively, they might decide this forum is not friendly to noobs. It IS, but they'll only see one thread out of context.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

We can’t fix myopia.

[James Steele]

Sometimes, (though I admit it might be rare), the advice given to person A, might be read by persons X, Y, and Z who stumble upon the forum in a search for answers.

This is certainly true and has been for a while every since I allowed this forum to be readable by non-members and to be crawled by Google.

[bayswater]

I think I know who you're talking about. Threads like:

"how do I do X"?
"Press the X button".
"Do I press the X button?"
"Yes"
"Does that do X?"

I agree. Let him/her spend a little time with the manual.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Or at least the COMMANDS window. So much great stuff there.