I've Wanted to Say This For a While, So I'm Going To Get It Out Now
- Thread starter captainkman
- Start date
johnwhelan
Well-known member
Compared to other forums this one is very civilised. Many new people's questions can be answered by reading through the Content Creator's Guide, I think there used to be an FAQ floating around somewhere. There is also the wiki book http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz which contains some useful information.
I've been round a while and I ask questions from time to time still pick up things from the forum.
Your view that questions should be asked in the forum is sensible. Unfortunately a number of users ask the same group of people in Private messages rather than ask in the forum and that is a problem which I think started this thread off.
Welcome to Trainz by the way. The virtual world has advantages for the disabled and retired.
Cheerio John
dragonharh
Acount Deleted
I just try to do the best I can no one is perfect.
Hi Kieran,
No intentions of charging for services... I understand!
I'll take note of your tutorials as they may definitely help. This is a long term project in its early birthing stages right now. Frank Bartus (fbartus) and I are writing (well he's writing and taking screenshots) and I'm editing the text. We have a lot of work to do.
Please PM link here so I can forward that to Frank. This will save us a ton of time.
I can say that madncan52 (Mark) and AnthonyVW have hit it well on the head. There are exceptions to every statement, so I'm not going to generalize here. A few years ago I went back to college as a full time university student. The students didn't want to do the work, they'd rather play hacky sack outside than hit the books. I suppose this is college when they don't have to pay for it themselves. Anyway. In one of my classes I became an unofficial TA. I was responsible for correcting papers and conducting lectures on music history which was my major. The requirements for the term papers were, just as always, to include references and to format the papers a particular way using the MLA or APA formats. These kids would hand in handwritten papers, did not include sources, or anything else. A third grader would actually do a better job. Needless to say, I spent more time rejecting papers then I did correcting them. The students complained that they were being flunked and I should go easy on them. Why? They didn't follow the rules. I got lectured by the professor for being too harsh! She was afraid they'd go to the department head and she'd get yelled at! Come on! Is it really that difficult to follow the rules?
When I went back to work in July 2010, I saw the same with the young sales people coming in. Oh, they expected the world to hand stuff to them. Their attitude, which seems to be the thing today, is everyone owes them because they're entitled. Never mind working and learning, everything has to come easy or they quit. In the olden times, or at least when I went to work, we worked hard, got raises, and then were promoted. We didn't come in as a mailroom clerk one day and expect to be a manager a week later.
To be honest, and I hate to say it, but I see this here too and more so lately. So many people want everything handed to them in one bucket so all they have to do is press a button. Life ain't easy and a complex system such as Trainz requires a bit of thinking once you get into the insides of it. Yes, new people ask questions, and I am more than willing to help. There is no need to be rude to people, particularly when the current Wiki is a bit of a confusing mess (another project in the works), as they seek out information on some of the many uncommon and sometimes obtuse terms related to the Trainz products. Yes, I do agree that sometimes the RTFM approach is a good one and does work if the user can find the terms.
John
No intentions of charging for services... I understand!
I'll take note of your tutorials as they may definitely help. This is a long term project in its early birthing stages right now. Frank Bartus (fbartus) and I are writing (well he's writing and taking screenshots) and I'm editing the text. We have a lot of work to do.
Please PM link here so I can forward that to Frank. This will save us a ton of time.
I can say that madncan52 (Mark) and AnthonyVW have hit it well on the head. There are exceptions to every statement, so I'm not going to generalize here. A few years ago I went back to college as a full time university student. The students didn't want to do the work, they'd rather play hacky sack outside than hit the books. I suppose this is college when they don't have to pay for it themselves. Anyway. In one of my classes I became an unofficial TA. I was responsible for correcting papers and conducting lectures on music history which was my major. The requirements for the term papers were, just as always, to include references and to format the papers a particular way using the MLA or APA formats. These kids would hand in handwritten papers, did not include sources, or anything else. A third grader would actually do a better job. Needless to say, I spent more time rejecting papers then I did correcting them. The students complained that they were being flunked and I should go easy on them. Why? They didn't follow the rules. I got lectured by the professor for being too harsh! She was afraid they'd go to the department head and she'd get yelled at! Come on! Is it really that difficult to follow the rules?
When I went back to work in July 2010, I saw the same with the young sales people coming in. Oh, they expected the world to hand stuff to them. Their attitude, which seems to be the thing today, is everyone owes them because they're entitled. Never mind working and learning, everything has to come easy or they quit. In the olden times, or at least when I went to work, we worked hard, got raises, and then were promoted. We didn't come in as a mailroom clerk one day and expect to be a manager a week later.
To be honest, and I hate to say it, but I see this here too and more so lately. So many people want everything handed to them in one bucket so all they have to do is press a button. Life ain't easy and a complex system such as Trainz requires a bit of thinking once you get into the insides of it. Yes, new people ask questions, and I am more than willing to help. There is no need to be rude to people, particularly when the current Wiki is a bit of a confusing mess (another project in the works), as they seek out information on some of the many uncommon and sometimes obtuse terms related to the Trainz products. Yes, I do agree that sometimes the RTFM approach is a good one and does work if the user can find the terms.
John
kabbie1882
New member
I have found that the "SEARCH" function on this forum is not very good. If you type in a couple of key words, you get a bunch of threads you have to read through just to find out that it is not the same problem you have.
Googling the problem just brings you back to the forums or even worse, to the Trainz store.
Most of the postings I have read are down right confusing. The original poster says they have "problem A" and then other people come in and complain about the question, complain about spelling and grammar or just tell the to figure it out themselves. Then someone FINALLY gives an answer then everyone piles on and gives opposing answers.
How in the heck is someone supposed to "figure it out" if you guys can't even make up your minds what is the right answer?
Googling the problem just brings you back to the forums or even worse, to the Trainz store.
Most of the postings I have read are down right confusing. The original poster says they have "problem A" and then other people come in and complain about the question, complain about spelling and grammar or just tell the to figure it out themselves. Then someone FINALLY gives an answer then everyone piles on and gives opposing answers.
How in the heck is someone supposed to "figure it out" if you guys can't even make up your minds what is the right answer?
This is one of the delights of Trainz. There is quite often more than one way of achieving what ever you are trying to do.
Cheers,
Bill69
captainkman
You are reading this.
Hi everyone,
I recently came across a thread where someone said they saw this one and were afraid to post because of it.
I think I should make it clear that the thing that annoyed me, and prompted me to start this thread, is people coming to me in private and asking for 'help' instead of using the forums.
Why?
Because in private I need to answer. I can answer when I feel like it, yes, but I just don't feel like it anymore. With the same question coming to me in private from different people, it becomes repetitive. If they were to have a search here (preferably using my method of searching here using Google) and then post, things would be better because I wouldn't be forced to answer the question or provide the 'help' (typed that way because often they want me to do sometihng for them and not just offer assistance).
Kieran.
I recently came across a thread where someone said they saw this one and were afraid to post because of it.
I think I should make it clear that the thing that annoyed me, and prompted me to start this thread, is people coming to me in private and asking for 'help' instead of using the forums.
Why?
Because in private I need to answer. I can answer when I feel like it, yes, but I just don't feel like it anymore. With the same question coming to me in private from different people, it becomes repetitive. If they were to have a search here (preferably using my method of searching here using Google) and then post, things would be better because I wouldn't be forced to answer the question or provide the 'help' (typed that way because often they want me to do sometihng for them and not just offer assistance).
Kieran.
KingConrail76
New member
Here is the Ah-HAH! moment; By reading those posts which result from the use of "search", you might not find the exact answer you were looking for, but I guarantee that you learned SOMETHING from them...it WILL help you down the road, and might give leads to asking better questions, or doing a more refined search.
I don't know your specific situation, and I am not busting your chops, you just provided a great seguay into explaining WHY some folks reply the way they do.
Even though the search function (on MOST vBulletin based forums) is not as effecient as we'd like, it is WAYYYY under-utilized.
Hi everyone, and thanks for the replies!
One thing I have done that helps some do stuff for themselves is place a link on my YouTube page to the 'Beginners' Guide To Trainz', written by our very own sniper297.
There was a 2006 version of it somewhere but I cannot find it, and I'd like to have another look at it to see if it would be useful as well.
I also made the 'Fixing Common Trainz Errors' series of videos as a tutorial to link others to if they had a problem that I covered in a tutorial.
For those that don't know my age, I recently turned 16.
@John C. I have no intention of making people pay me to give them information that is freely available elsewhere. although it would encourage them to do their research.
Those tutorials sound good. Is there any way I could help? Feel free to use my Fixing Common Trainz Errors videos.
@Shane T. Your tutorials have become a valuable resource to me as a LOT of people come to me with the multicolour texture issue. I hope you don't mind of I refer people to you when they ask a technical question that I can't answer.
One of my problems is that I have Aspergers Syndrome and aim to please people, so I find it really hard to tell others to do some research on the Wiki or use Google to try and find their missing dependencies, because I don't want to be rude.
Thank you for the opinions and active participation.
Kieran.
Hi Captainkman ,
I've read your problem of Asperger , so we are more or less "college's" .
I have PDD-NOS , a anxiety disorder and a personality disorder.
So i understand your fealing of , pleasing others and don't want to be rude.
I live in the Netherlands a very "tolerant " country but nobody understand what it is to be an autist.
I know it has nothing to do with Trainz but i felt the need to write this.
bentrain14
does not make bogies
Thats how I figured out how to reskin. Just experiment until you find out. Im happy to answer questions but when I have put out a tutorial and people keep asking the same questions that i answer a bazillion times it starts to bug me. Its good to ask for help but there comes a time to search it up and do it your self. Im no better than anyone else out there and im still learning thanks to some freinds but I figured its time to figure it out on your own.
jjanmarine3
Active member
Spare a thought for the older guys who forget what they have asked or learnt :hehe: