Theodicius

Good. Evil. Bratwurst.

Where Am I?

Posted on by arlen

I’m a member of two web development mailing lists (which two I won’t specify, the identity isn’t necessary to the tale) but I haven’t posted to either list often of late; in fact I think it’s been a year since I was heard from on one. Why?

I was arguably among the most active on both lists for years, then suddenly I disappeared. My lack of participation struck me this morning as I looked at the email folder from one of the lists which contained well over a thousand unread messages.

Then I opened the folder and looked at the subject lines, and I remembered why I hadn’t participated for a long time. Of the first four screens of messages I saw nothing except requests for solutions to problems that have been long known, and which can be found with a few seconds on a competent search engine, and requests for site checks (people wanting you to fire up your browser and look at their site).

I remember the day when mailing lists were useful tools for learning from others. You could pick someone’s brains and find out what you needed to know. But you also felt responsible for using their time, and tried first to find out the answer on your own.

Today it seems the majority of people I run into on the net want everything handed to them in a nicely wrapped bundle, and are unwilling to expend any effort on their own. In fact, they act insulted if you dare to suggest they could have found the answer on their own by simply typing the exact question they asked into the search box at Google, DogPile, Teoma, or wherever.

It’s this attitude of entitlement that has driven down my participation. The fact that people seem to feel they are somehow entitled to my expertise, and that I’m a Rotten Human Being if I don’t drop whatever deadline-challenged work I have in front of me and do precisely what they want me to do for them, so they can take the credit and even earn the money for completing their project.

Maybe I’m just getting curmudgeonly in my old age, but I’m no longer inclined to do that. When there are 16 sites readily available through searching that have the exact details of the problem you have, I’m really not inclined to stop what I’m doing and lead you by the hand to them. Show me you’re willing to expend some effort learning, and then we’ll talk.

I stopped doing site checks for all but certain people when the people requesting the checks started arguing with me about it. I mean, if you’re going to ask my opinion, don’t jump up and down on me for giving it. You surely don’t have to fix everything I might happen to think is wrong, but if you aren’t willing to listen to the criticism, why bother to ask?

So if you’re on one of those lists, and you’re wondering where I am, I’m still there. I’m just not interested in saying much of anything, anymore. There’s too much noise and not enough signal.

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