Path: news.mathworks.com!newsfeed-00.mathworks.com!newsfeed2.dallas1.level3.net!news.level3.com!postnews.google.com!s13g2000prd.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail
From: checker <checkeraz69@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: comp.soft-sys.matlab
Subject: Re: Is the "newbie" tag helpful or pejorative?
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:08:18 -0800 (PST)
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Lines: 38
Message-ID: <235fda7e-ad84-4191-99eb-cc72f842a4d4@s13g2000prd.googlegroups.com>
References: <fovs7m$l59$1@fred.mathworks.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 199.64.0.252
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1202944098 15966 127.0.0.1 (13 Feb 2008 23:08:18 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:08:18 +0000 (UTC)
Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
Injection-Info: s13g2000prd.googlegroups.com; posting-host=199.64.0.252; 
User-Agent: G2/1.0
X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) 
Xref: news.mathworks.com comp.soft-sys.matlab:451269



On Feb 13, 3:50 pm, "Ned Gulley" <gul...@mathworks.com> wrote:
> This newsgroup is a valuable resource for everyone who uses
> MATLAB, whether they are experienced or not. But it is
> sometimes useful to know the experience level of the person
> posing a given question, especially if that experience level
> is very low.
>
> I wonder if we can find a tag (like "newbie" or some other
> such word) that is not stigmatizing and allows people to
> flag themselves as new users who need a little more coaching.
>
> Clearly it's not good for people to be spoon-fed solutions
> to their homework. But there is a place for gently assisted
> learning. Some people enjoy doing this kind of coaching, and
> some do not. By attaching an appropriate tag to a post, we
> might minimize the interactions between those seeking
> elementary help and those who prefer assisting people with
> more advanced skills. Then again, such a tag might be seen
> as pejorative and not be very useful after all.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Ned Gulley
> gul...@mathworks.com

It doesn't take much to parse a message and get the measure of a
poster's experience level.  My personal HELP/IGNORE switch is thrown
not on the experience level, but on the thought put into the post
prior to and while posting.  If (help me pleeeeeeeeeese | solve my
homework for meeeeeee) then IGNORE elseif (trying to figure this out
and this is what I've done) then HELP ...  sorta thing.

I believe that regardless of the years using this product, there are
areas where anyone can be considered a newbie.

Plus tags aren't visible in google groups.

-Chris