Something just clicked...
The internet is filled with people sharing information on how to create and copy highly technical projects. These projects range from programming computers, to physical creations and hacks, like making backyard lightning bolts and putting a home PC in a toaster.
Several of these projects become their own genre (like the aforementioned putting X computer object inside of Y packaging), or taking manufacturer X's hardware, and replacing the software.
If you dig in further, community customs and mores start to appear. What I'm sure many of you have seen, is the classic case of the "noob" (aka newbie) asking for help and explanation. I think that it's kind of vile that so often, these people have to be self-effacing in order to get answers to their beginner questions.
There's a project I've been interested in implementing and completing at home. I've spent several hours researching and learning all the necessary hardware/software/configurations. Yet for all of my Internet searching, I never found a definitive overview of how to complete the project. It’s bullshit that I'd have to make yet another "HI I'M A NEWBIE SO BEAR WITH MY BASIC QUESTIONS" kind of post, especially because this isn't the case. At this point, I know my shit - you could just spell out the process without any details and I'll get it done. Period.
And that's the point where it hit me, that the whole phenomenon of people debasing themselves to learn something can only be blamed on the experts.
By and large, the “experts” can not document a full process clearly; they can only write very specific information in small disjointed parts. I could also place blame on the fact that there rarely seems to be a master editor for so much web-based documentation. This leads to people having a hard time learning the ins and outs of a far-reaching project.
One should be proud to be a newbie, embarking on a project. It is nothing to be ashamed of to ask questions when the teacher did a poor job of explaining something.
(This is of course the argument why books are still relevant when all the raw information is available for free)
