Re: Writing answers for newbie questions

[nysus]

I personally don't mind when others "show-off" their coding ability. It shows me what is possible. Of course, I'm getting to the point where I can actually make some sense out of it after staring at it for 15 minutes.

What would be great is if more intermediate monks like me would post their less-than-elegant code right along with the 0 handicap golfers out there. I just did this over at this post. We shouldn't get discouraged just because our answer isn't the best answer and go ahead and post our crap code anyway. Besides, it's great practice for us.

So I vote to let the advanced users continue to show off. But less than godlike Monks need to be encouraged to chip in even if their answer is not the equivalent of erecting Stonehenge.

One more thought: Too often, the newbie asks a question, gets some answers, and that's that. But I'm sure the newbie still probably has lingering questions but doesn't want to look stupid with a follow-up question (I know I did this). It would be good if the person answering encouraged dialogue. I think a simple "Let me know if you don't understand anything and I'll be happy to help out" would go a long way to finding where a newbie really needs help.

$PM = "Perl Monk's";
$MCF = "Most Clueless Friar Abbot";
$nysus = $PM . $MCF;