The GameSX Philosphy

[NFG]

I think many people confuse a 'harsh tone' with frustration caused by people who'd rather ask for help than spend ten minutes thinking about it.  I run this website for two people: People who need pinout data for their own projects, whatever they may be, and people who are like me: intensely curious hardware hacking geeks who love a challenge and will stare at a schematic between games of Mario v Donkey Kong for three days until it suddenly makes sense.

Now without meaning to be mean, or rude, my theory is simple: If you're not willing to bust your ass, think hard, and beat the shit out of google looking for answers before you ask questions, I don't want you here.  

If anyone comes here with a detailed question about specific facts instead of a generic "I don't get it, tell me more" post they'll be welcomed and helped without a second thought.  If they can't be bothered to help themselves then as far as I'm concerned they're not smart enough to be welcomed here.  

What happens when you give someone a step-by-step mod including soldering advice, detailed shopping lists and a 40-step guide?  They can do the mod easily, and with a smile!  But then, and this is the crucial bit, they haven't learned a fucking thing.  They still can't do a mod because they didn't do anything but follow directions.  Monkeys can do that, and I don't want monkeys on my forum.

I don't see this as unfair.  You bust your own ass and you'll be supported here.  You want us to do your work for you and there'll be some righteous ridicule.

[erkan]

In other words, its almost like in the Linux community but replace Linux with hardware.    

[NFG]

Except the Linux community hates writing documentation, and I like to think I'm fairly good at it.  

[v_guru1]

Im sorry you fell this way.    but i dont think its fair to us who have the knowledge but need the help and direction. With chips changing almost daily its hard to know them all, so we look to the "pros" for help. We all are not electronic technicians with all the books and schemetics from the manufactures to tell us what where looking at. This site is begining to remind me of Sony's tech support ya need info just info or ya need to find a driverits to bad and heaven for bid ya need the orginal driver disk. Sorry if i seam angry but I look to your expertise in the areas i dont know.

[NFG]

How do you think I got this knowledge!?  I never took electronics in school, I never had a soldering job, no manufacturer answers my calls, I use google like everyone else and I do my own damned research!

When I started doing this there were no pros!  I had to learn almost all of it on my own, that's why I started this site.

Maybe your problem is you don't pay attention.  What part of "I'll help if you you try to do your own research first and ask intelligent questions" sounded like "Newbies fuggoff kthx"?

And boy, I hope English is a second language to you 'cause your spelling is terrible.

[v_guru1]

thanks for the reply im really greatful for the response. Now i deserve to be slandered for my spelling and what i said in a earler note, but I try. That is no need to be grumpie. Yes I understand when you answer the same question multiple times it getson your last nerve: but come on now thats why you started this site if i rember correctly. CANT WE ALL GET A LONGGGGGG!! :rolleyes:  

[Cube]

While I'll admit that I'm pretty much a noob in regards to all this tech stuff, I'm looking to get into building and modding and such hardcore, so I'm glad that I found your site.

First project will probably be that DC VGA box, can't seem to find any in my area of Canada.  I'm not a noob to the soldering iron, or to schematics, but I am very, very out of practice.

[Gord]

but come on now thats why you started this site if i rember correctly.

You remember incorrectly.  He set the site up to be a giant archive.  While he will also answer questions if he knows the answers, he intended that to be the last option available after a person has already exhausted all their research options and came up empty.  Under this, everyone is a winner.

If he were to become the first line of research instead of the last, he would simply become overwhelmed by requests and be unavailable to the people who really have no other options.

Let's say 100 people a day were to start asking him one question each.  That's not a lot, especially given that the sight has been Slashdotted a few times now with thousands of people an hour coming here.  If each "simple question" took 5 minutes to read and type up a reply, that would be 500 minutes a day.  That's more than 8 hours a day under the best case scenario for time consumption.

If he had intended to do that, I would have simply set up a "pay per question" link and charged $50 an hour to prepare an answer.

[v_guru1]

Ok yes your correct i forgot about the archive idea my apoligies. Yes your correct about this should be the last line to come to but i think its unfair to blame people who use this site as there last resort, he has the best info around   so why should i look farther if i can get the same info from one site that i call "my friends" that can help.
Then leave it at this ask a intellgent question and get a intellgent answer, thats all i want from a site like this.
I was a part of a repair site for automotive repair and when i had a problem that i couldnt solve or my shop mates i refered to this site the problem came in when i asked a question that i had a hard time with all i got was sarcasim. Ok now try to hunt down a problem like this intermiterant engine shutdown for no reason (hot cold rain etc.)even the FACTORY techs couldnt find the problem turns out that the main data path between ecms broke and the ecms did not talk. Now being so frustrated and loosing $$$ i turn to a well known auto tech site and i got 1 and only 1 insite in to the problem I had 300 replys like this "hay, what your so dumb cant figure out the problem" Not helpful. So when a site comes along like this you take it when you can, cause somthing pisses of the modterator off ( not saying it did) and all you wind up is with is sarcasium.
Sometimes you need someone elses input to fix a problem your stuck with.

Bleve it or not im very thankful for lawrences' site THANK YOU

[Vertigo]

I think part of the problem is that it's not actually obvious that this is a forum partly designed to be a companion to the whole gamesx.com site. You can easily get in here via the nfg.2y.net page or directly via a web link and it not be immediately obvious that there's a whole arseload of stuff for you to read before you ask silly questions.
The GamesX Network graphic at the top links to the main nfg.2y.net page and then you have to work out for yourself to click the small gamesx graphic on that page to actually get somewhere. How would you know to click through two interesting and likely-looking sites unless you knew exactly what you were looking for?

[Endymion]

Ever been asked an uninformed question? It happens a lot with technical stuff like this. A lot of uninformed questions are bandied about on these topics in general and at this site in particular. Inquisitiveness and curiosity are not enough. We can't drill the self-reliance and common sense into anyone's brain.

I'm trying to get into some of the more advanced modifications the site deals with but guess what? I haven't got the foggiest idea how to read a wiring diagram! Do you see me posting here, daily (or hourly?) asking someone "What does this little squiggly mark on the diagram mean?" No, because it goes without saying that there are better resources to learn that stuff and once I have this basic information I can ask the actually important questions here, like "do I really need to use this resistor/capacitor/etc. for this amplifier" or whatever.

[edited by lawrence, hope ya don't mind endymion]

[atom]

Whats most annoying are questions from people that dont even know what a soldering iron that ask questions like...

"How do i add wi-fi to my gameboy advance for network play? Also adding 6 more buttons would be useful. How do you plug in your new buttons?  Please dont yell at me im just trying to learn im not as smart as you all smarty pants people."

First off, common sense should tell you that you cant add buttons to a console, without having special games made for the new controller. This is especially for the gameboy advance because the controller is on-board. You should also Google and learn how a button works (http://howstuffworks.com) , and you should just realize the ludicrous of wi-fi on a gba. Its like putting a Hemi on a kids 3 wheel bike.

I realize it wasnt an actual example, but for you guys that get mad when we dont help, thats really what you guys sound like. http://howstuffworks.com is a really good site that does just what the title says, use it and learn how to put together basic electronics!

Also... one more thing. I mentioned this before but there should be a minimum knowledge disclaimer for the tech part of the forums. We love you guys but you gotta learn the way we did. Ever hear the expression, give a man to fish, and feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime.